BECKLEY, W.Va. — West Virginia filed an objection earlier this week to the proposed sale of Alpha Natural Resources’ assets to a hedge fund, stating the sale could leave the state holding hundreds of millions in reclamation liabilities.
If the proposed $500 million sale is approved by a bankruptcy judge, the company’s major assets would be sold off to Alpha’s senior lenders. The remaining assets would then be reorganized into a separate company, court records show.
The state argues that if the sale is approved, it could tilt the process in favor of the hedge fund and institutional investors, leaving West Virginia to accept costly concessions or risk a liquidation.
That restructuring plan would divest “reorganized Alpha” of its most valuable assets, leaving it “saddled with its largest and most intractable, liabilities,” likely including more than $1 billion of non-dischargable environmental obligations…
