Delaware: Grupo Mexico SAB can regain control of its bankrupt US copper miner, a judge in Texas ruled in rejecting a competing offer from Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd.
US District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas ruled that Grupo Mexico's proposal to pay about USD 2.5 billion to Asarco LLC's creditors "is both feasible and confirmable."
The decision means that, barring a successful appeal by Sterlite, Grupo Mexico should be able to take back control of the Tucson, Arizona based copper miner.
Grupo Mexico and Sterlite each promised to spend more than USD 2.5 billion to guarantee that Asarco's creditors are repaid in full. In ruling in favor of Grupo Mexico, Hanen agreed with a lower-court opinion from the bankruptcy judge that oversaw Asarco's case for five years.
"In many ways the course of this bankruptcy has been a contentious and hard fought piece of litigation," Hanen wrote in his decision, which came late Friday evening.
The case is In re Asarco LLC, 05-21207, US Bankruptcy
Court, Southern District of Texas (Corpus Christi).
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 15:30