PORT TOWNSEND – The Port Townsend Paper Corp. and its affiliates have received approval of what’s essentially a $50 million loan to help pay their vendors as the company reorganizes under federal bankruptcy laws.
“This is a bigger, better financing package,” Tim Leybold, chief financial officer, said Monday.
“The money is being provided by one of the larger bond holders.”
The former financing package totaled $23 million, said Leybold.
The larger amount in what is called replacement debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing, was approved last Thursday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington and was issued on Friday.
Leybold said the money will go toward capital investments, improvements to the mill and taking care of investors.
“The biggest message we’d like to get across to our vendors is that we can pay them and continue on through this bankruptcy process,” Leybold said.
The company employs 310 people at its Port Townsend kraft-paper producing mill.
It is Jefferson County’s largest private employer.
