Current Engagements

Hamilton Specialty Bar Corporation

Hamilton Specialty Bar Corporation - CCAA Proceedings

On January 5, 2007, Hamilton Specialty Bar Corporation ("HSB" or the "Company") sought relief under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act R.S.C. 1985, C-36 as amended ("CCAA"), with an order granted by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the " Initial Order") .Pursuant to the Initial Order, A. Farber & Partners Inc. was appointed Monitor.

The effect of the Initial Order is that it provides a 30-day stay over all creditors, with amounts outstanding prior to January 5, 2007 being frozen.

By Order of Justice Lax of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dated February 1, 2007 (the "February 1 Order"), HSB be was granted an extension to its Stay Period to March 2, 2007. The February 1 Order also confirms Royal Laser Corp as the Selected Bidder, which will now move forward to negotiate and finalize an asset purchase agreement to take over the HSB business, and then close a transaction ("Transaction") on or prior to February 28, 2007. Amongst other matters, a Transaction is conditional on negotiating and finalizing a deal with the United Steelworkers. The February 1 Order and its terms can be viewed below. In addition we attach below a press release put on by the Selected Bidder, Royal Laser Corp.

Through February 2007, it was ultimately determined that Royal Laser Corp. could not negotiate an agreement with the union to allow it to purchase the assets of HSB. As a result, no sale was concluded. Coincident with this, on February 23, 2007, an Order (the "Liquidation Order") was granted by the Honourable Justice Lax which approved the liquidation process (the "Liquidation Process") set out in the Monitor's Supplementary Report to the Monitor's Third Report (the "Supplementary Report"), directed the Monitor to immediately implement the Liquidation Process and wind down the business through March and April 2007. We can confirm the business has been wound down, the plant idled and the majority of the employees terminated in May 2007.

Pursuant to an Order of the Court dated May 10, 2007, a process has commenced to seek proposals and/or offers for the purchase of the HSB business or underlying assets, to be submitted by June 22, 2007 (extended from June 1, 2007). As a result of that process, a going concern purchaser, Woodside Capital Partners IV, LLC (the "Purchaser"), was the party HSB moved forward with and signed an agreement of purchase and sale with on July 17, 2007 ("Sales Agreement"). This required among other matters, that the Purchaser had negotiated an agreement with the USW union. The Sales Agreement was assigned to a newly incorporated entity, Hamilton Specialty Bar (2007) Inc. The Sales Agreement was approved by the Court on July 24, 2007, with the granting of an approval and vesting order. Coincidence with that, the Court approved a lease and option agreement on some HSB property, required by the Purchaser for ongoing operations. The overall transaction is expected to close on or prior to August 15, 2007. Subject to the successful closing of the transaction, the realizations that would flow, will not be sufficient to repay all secured debt, and as a result, no funds will be available for unsecured creditors. For that reason, no CCAA claims process has been commenced to date for unsecured creditors to file claims. Given this outlook, a CCAA claims process will likely not be commenced, nor required.

We confirm the Sales Agreement profiled above did close on August 17, 2007. Shortly after, on August 20, 2007, HSB was assigned into bankruptcy. A copy of the creditors' information package is attached below.

The CCAA Stay has been extended to allow the Monitor to complete all outstanding administration. The Stay period will be completed when the Monitor files a certificate with the Court advising that all outstanding matters have been dealt with.

The purpose of this website is to provide documents to any interested party regarding the HSB CCAA proceedings. The documents listed below are in pdf. format and can be viewed and/or downloaded.

Bankruptcy Documents

Creditors' Bankruptcy Package

Court Orders

Court Motion Materials

Reports