Bankrupt limestone company to be sold

After two months of deliberation, Indiana Limestone Company has plans to be sold. An auction was set to take place Monday but was canceled because only one firm offered a bid.

If approved in bankruptcy court Wednesday, Indiana Commercial Finance LLC will buy the company’s assets. It is unlikely that employees will be laid off as a result of this sale.

Court documents show that stalking-horse bidder Indiana Commercial Finance has had plans to bid for the company since at least February. Stalking-horse bidders are typically selected by the company in a bankruptcy sale like this one to avoid low bids on assets.

Other bids were due April 11, but none were received. Following approval on the sale for a $26 million credit bid at Wednesday’s hearing, a closing will occur in the next couple of weeks, and the sale will be made final.

Indiana Commercial Finance was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Rosemont, Ill., according to Bloomberg Businessweek. It is owned and controlled by Chicago-based private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital. Indiana Commercial Finance acquired Victor Oolitic Stone Co. Feb. 17, the day that ILC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

When ILC filed for bankruptcy, it cited a debt of $50 million to $100 million. In 2010 private equity firm Resilience Capital Partners bought ILC and merged it with Victor Oolitic Stone Company, which it purchased in an earlier Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2009.

A full layoff of the 166-person staff was expected to take place between April 28 and May 11, according to a WARN notice filed with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. But within a typical sale of assets, most, if not all, employees will be rehired by the buyer immediately.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice Act requires shutting down companies of a certain size to provide these notices even if a future sale is possible.

The demand for Indiana limestone remains strong, contrary to some recent sweeping statements about the industry, according to a press release distributed by the Indiana Limestone Institute of America in March. ILC is just one of several limestone quarriers in the area.