BANGOR, Maine — A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday set Oct. 29 as the date for more than 1,100 creditors owed money by the company that owns the East Millinocket paper mill to meet.
The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. at the Penobscot County Probate Court located in the historic county courthouse on Hammond Street in Bangor instead of in the small bankruptcy courtroom on the third floor of the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building on Harlow Street.
GNP Maine Holdings LLC, owner of Great Northern Paper Co.’s East Millinocket operation, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month in Delaware, where the firm was incorporated. The mill ceased operations in February.
More than 20 creditors, including the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket, and the Maine attorney general, successfully petitioned for the case to be moved to Maine because 56 percent of the 1,159 creditors are within the state. Attorneys for GNP objected to having the case moved from the state where the company was incorporated, in part, because a new trustee would have to be appointed to administer the case.
Augusta attorney Pasquale “Pat” J. Perrino Jr. has been appointed trustee for the case.
The notice of the creditors meeting was posted Tuesday on the court’s electronic case filing system after the transfer of the case from U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, to Bangor was completed.
Perrino said the purpose of the meeting would be to determine the assets and liabilities of GNP.
Documents filed last week with the bankruptcy court in Delaware — available at bankruptcy court in Maine — showed the company that owns the East Millinocket paper mill owes $65 million to its creditors but has just $28.15 million in assets.
The money owed to companies and individuals that have secured claims either through liens or court judgments totals $42.34 million, including $20 million owed to Stonehenge Community Development of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and $20 million to Enhanced Capital New Market Development Fund of New Orleans, Louisiana, which hold mortgages on the mill.
Unsecured creditors are owed $22.6 million. The company listed nearly $117,500 in accounts receivable in its bankruptcy filings.
Perrino said Tuesday that it was too early to tell if the company’s assets would be able to pay unsecured creditors all or a portion of what they are owed. Under the bankruptcy court’s rules, unsecured creditors, many of whom are local businesses, according to court documents, must be paid after secured creditors have been.
GNP Assets
— Real property: $16.5 million
— Personal property: $11.65 million
— Total: $28.15 million
GNP Liabilities
— Secured creditors: $42.34 million
— Unsecured creditors: $22.6 million
— Unpaid wages/salaries: $139,000
— Total liabilities: $65.08 million