Mallinckrodt to file Ireland’s second-largest examinership case within days

Mallinckrodt, the Dublin-based but US-run drugmaker, is set for examinership in the High Court within days as it seeks to copperfasten a debt restructuring hammered out on the other side of the Atlantic.

The company filed for bankruptcy in Delaware as the company, with $5.3 billion (€4.63 billion) in long-term debt, was overwhelmed by lawsuits accusing it of deceptively marketing opioids.

Under the protection of the US court, it agreed to a $1.7 billion settlement with 47 states and territories to resolve claims over its role in the opioid crisis.

It also agreed to pay the US government $260 million to absolve a claim that it underpaid rebates on Acthar Gel, a hormone treatment to relieve inflammation.

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The company said late on Thursday that a drawn-out reorganisation plan, which will reduce its debt by $1.3 billion, has been confirmed by the US bankruptcy court of the district of Delaware.

"In the coming days, the directors of Mallinckrodt intend to make certain filings to commence examinership proceedings in Ireland, which are required to implement certain Irish law aspects of the reorganisation and allow for emergence," Mallinckrodt said, noting that the process would take about 100 days and enable the group to emerge from so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of June.

History

It is set to be the second-largest examinership case in Irish corporate history, after that of Eir, then known as Eircom, a decade ago. The telecoms group filed for court protection from its creditors in 2012 and succeeded in getting €1.7 billion of its then €4 billion debt pile written off.

Mallinckrodt shares will be cancelled under the bankruptcy plan, while guaranteed unsecured bondholders are exchanging debt for ownership in the reorganized business.

While Mallinckrodt increased creditor support for its reorganisation strategy as the Chapter 11 process continued, it also faced fierce opposition. A small group of dissident shareholders, led by New York-based asset management firm Buxton Helmsley, said last summer they would seek to air claims that their rights as shareholders were suppressed under the Chapter 11 proceedings when the case finally made it to the Irish High Court.

Facility

Mallinckrodt, founded in St Louis, Missouri, in 1867, has had a presence in Ireland for more than two decades, but its ownership and business in the State has changed dramatically since then.

The company was acquired in 2000 by then-Bermuda-based manufacturing and services conglomerate Tyco International, which seven years later separated its healthcare business from the group as an independent company, called Covidien, which was domiciled in Ireland.

Covidien, in turn, spun off Mallinckrodt as a New York Stock Exchange-listed, but Irish-incorporated, company in 2013. Covidien was acquired by Medtronic, the world's second-largest medical devices maker in 2014 for almost $43 billion in a "corporate inversion" that saw Medtronic move its domicile to Ireland.

Mallinckrodt employs 120 people in its facility in Blanchardstown in west Dublin, working in areas including research and development, manufacturing, supply chain management and other support functions.