Federal officials are objecting to a coal company's plan to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy, because, they say, it looks a lot more like a plan to liquidate.
The U.S. Trustee Program is the arm the Department of Justice that oversees bankruptcy cases. The agency is not buying the reorganization plan that Alpha Natural Resources filed in March. In court documents, the U.S. Trustee writes that although the plan was presented as a reorganization, the fact that Alpha is planning to sell off its most valuable assets, including its mines in Wyoming, makes the plan look more like a liquidation.
Alpha does not explain how the company will operate once it sells off these core assets, and the U.S. Trustee says there is no information about how the company that remains will generate income.
If Alpha were to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and liquidate, the company would cease to exist.