WR Grace's bankruptcy exit financing deal gets court approval

Reuters
A new building is under construction at chemical maker W.R. Grace's Maryland headquarters in Columbia, Maryland on June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) - Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co received approval to line up about $1.55 billion in bankruptcy exit financing, a court filing showed on Tuesday. Grace will use the money to pay all outstanding claims, including $1.1 billion to its lenders, removing the last obstacle to its emergence out of bankruptcy protection. The remaining amount will go towards funding trusts that will be created to pay asbestos-related injury claims, an earlier court filing showed. The company is likely to emerge from bankruptcy on January 31. Grace filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001, making it one of the longest bankruptcies in the history of the United States, after an asbestos leak at one of its mines led to a slew of lawsuits. The case is W.R. Grace & Co, et al, Case No. 01-01139, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware. (Reporting by Avik Das in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)