The US bankruptcy court has approved the sale of the assets of machinery manufacturer Milacron (Cincinnati, Ohio / USA; www.milacron.com) to a group of existing investors led by Avenue Capital Group and DDJ Capital Management, Milacron’s debtor-in-possession financers during its Chapter 11 proceedings. The sale is expected to be completed in July.

In May 2009, the company finalised the agreement to sell “substantially all” of its assets to the group for USD 175m in a debt-to-equity swap – see Plasteurope.com of 14.05.2009. The leading investors together owned 93% of Milacron’s senior notes. It has been reported that there was opposition to the sale from unsecured creditors including the company’s JV partner in India, who argued that the sale procedure held down the purchase price.

Milacron CEO, Dave Lawrence, said that there had been “considerable interest in the company, but in the end, the existing investor group’s offer was the highest. The new ownership will enhance our ability to further advance our technologies, to develop new strategic partnerships and to expand our services to customers across the globe.”

Surprisingly, Ross Anderson resigned as Milacron vice president and president of machinery technologies North America, effective 14 July 2009. Anderson, who was formerly CFO of the company, had taken up the post only in December 2008. North America machinery technologies is Milacron’s largest operating segment, covering injection moulding, blow moulding and extrusion machinery built in the US, India and China. A company spokesman said that the bankruptcy had provided Milacron with the opportunity to evaluate the structure of its operations, including the machinery technologies North America and China segment, for greater efficiency. In the short term, Anderson’s management team “will report directly to Dave Lawrence, who will work closely with them to shape the company’s go-to-market strategies and transition the company to new ownership.”