California thermoformer PinnPack Packaging LLC is being bought out of bankruptcy court for $9.6 million by a new company formed by PinnPack President Ira Maroofian.
A federal judge in Delaware approved the purchase June 22, as part of the bankruptcy of PinnPack's parent company, PET recycling firm CarbonLite Holdings LLC. Maroofian is also on CarbonLite's board of directors and is a longtime packaging industry executive.
Maroofian is listed in court documents as the "managing member" of PinnPack Capital Holdings LLC, the new owner of PinnPack and its PET thermoforming plant in Oxnard, Calif. Maroofian has been president of PinnPack since 2016, court documents show.
He told the court in a June 21 filing that PCH has an initial investment of $12 million, including $2.4 million in working capital, from Iraj Barkohanai and family trusts, which would hold 90 percent ownership of PCH, court documents show.
According to a filing from CarbonLite's court-appointed restructuring officer, PHC presented the only viable offer for PinnPack, which did not have the cash flow to continue and would have been forced to liquidate its assets and lay off its 190 employees.
Court filings also said PCH has an agreement with the state agency CalRecycle to borrow up to $3.25 million from the agency, after the court said it would dismiss a previous $2.6 million CalRecycle loan to PinnPack as part of the bankruptcy.
Los Angeles-based CarbonLite bought PinnPack in 2017, seeking to integrate the company's production of food-grade thermoformed packaging with CarbonLite's PET recycling operations.
All three of CarbonLite's PET recycling plants were sold in earlier rounds of the bankruptcy proceeding. Its Riverside, Calif., plant was sold to Houston private equity firm Sterling Group, its Dallas plant is now owned by PET resin supplier Indorama Public Ventures Ltd., and its Reading, Pa., plant is being sold to DAK Americas LLC.