After nearly seven years and more than a dozen failed attempts, a reorganization plan allowing Congoleum Corp. to emerge from bankruptcy has finally met with a federal judge’s approval.
The Chapter 11 plan, approved June 7 and effective July 1, establishes a fund to pay an estimated 100,000-plus asbestos claimants. Congoleum’s insurers — whose refusal to cover the mounting volume of those claims triggered the bankruptcy — are to contribute $253 million, and the reorganized Congoleum has pledged 50.1 percent of its equity.
