LTV Financial plan is presented to judge for review

The deal would give the steelmaker time to reorganize.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- LTV Corp. is one step closer to securing a $700 million financial package that would allow the steelmaker to continue operating for the next 18 months.
The Cleveland-based company presented the plan to Judge William T. Bodoh of U.S. Bankruptcy Court here Friday, along with a schedule of fees and expenses it would incur.
Bruce Bennett, a Los Angeles attorney representing LTV, said the package includes a $600 million loan from a group of lenders led by Chase Manhattan Bank and an additional $100 million from Ableco Finance, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management in New York City.
The financing is considered permanent, he said, and expires June 30, 2002, or when a reorganization of the company finances is substantially complete, whichever comes first.
Deposits required: The larger amount is coming from lenders who have had dealings with the company in the past and so will not require a commitment fee, Bennett said. Cerberus is a new lender, however, so LTV would have to pay it fees and deposits of $950,000 for that portion of the funding.
"That may sound like a lot, but it's only .075 percent of the loan," Bennett said.
Phil Langer, an attorney representing Credit Suisse, one of LTV's secured creditors, voiced informal objections to the lending plan, although he did not file an official complaint.
He said Credit Suisse was a lender for the Copperweld Companies, one of LTV's most profitable divisions, and the lender is worried that the company will become so heavily encumbered by debt that it would have to be liquidated.
Plan in place? Bennett said he was surprised to hear Langer's comments because he thought LTV already had reached a repayment agreement for the $200 million it owed Credit Suisse.
He said attorneys have until March 15 to work out that question and any other differences with creditors over the lending plan and to document the plan for the court.
"We'll need a wheelbarrow for all the paper," he joked.
LTV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, blaming unfairly priced imports for driving steel prices to 20-year lows. The company reached a short-term agreement with its lenders which allowed it to stay open while negotiating a permanent financing plan.
LTV, CSC Ltd. in Warren and West Virginia-based Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, all of which filed in federal court in Youngstown, are among 16 U.S. steelmakers seeking bankruptcy protection over the past two years.
LTV employs 17,000, including 200 at a coke mill in Warren, 80 at a pipe mill in Youngstown and 40 at an office for its tubular products division in Youngstown.