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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimbaBear who wrote (14239)	4/3/2002 9:19:50 PM
From: 249443	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78740

Armstrong & Its Future: TimbaBear: It has the potential to be a big payoff. Without sitting down with an asbestos attorney, there is no way I could figure out what type of potential value ACK may have! :) The assets are definately there. Armstrong FAQ: armstrong.com SEC Filings: <http://www.freeedgar.com/search/ViewFilings.asp?CIK=7431&Directory=950109&Year=02&SECIndex=1211&Extension=.tst&PathFlag=0&TextFileSize=732598&SFType=&SDFiled=&DateFiled=3/8/2002&SourcePage=FilingsResults&UseFrame=1&OEMSource=&FormType=10-K&CompanyName=ARMSTRONG+WORLD+INDUSTRIES+INC> Bar Date for Filing Claims -------------------------- The Court established August 31, 2001 as the bar date for all claims against AWI except for certain specified claims. A bar date is the date by which claims against AWI must be filed if the claimants wish to participate in any distribution from the Chapter 11 Case. The Court extended the bar date for claims from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service until March 29, 2002 and for claims from several environmental agencies until the second quarter of 2002. In March 2002, the Court ruled that the time to file claims related to asbestos property damage would not be further extended, but allowed certain alleged holders of asbestos property damage claims to file a class proof of claim against AWI. Upon such filing, the Court will later determine whether the proposed class should be certified. A bar date for asbestos-related personal injury claims has not been set. Approximately 4,400 proofs of claim totaling approximately $6.0 billion alleging a right to payment from AWI were filed with the Court in response to the August 31, 2001 bar date, which are discussed below.AWI continues to investigate claims to determine their validity. The Court will ultimately determine liability amounts that will be allowed as part of the Chapter 11 process. In its ongoing review of the filed claims, AWI already identified and successfully objected to approximately 900 claims totaling $1.4 billion. These claims were, primarily, duplicate filings, amendments to previously filed claims or claims that are not related to AWI. The Court disallowed these claims with prejudice in January 2002. In addition to the objected claims described above, approximately 1,000 proofs of claim totaling approximately $1.9 billion were filed with the Court that are associated with asbestos-related personal injury litigation, including direct personal injury claims, claims by co-defendants for contribution and indemnification, and claims relating to AWI's participation in the Center for Claims Resolution ("the Center"). As stated above, the bar date of August 31, 2001 did not apply to asbestos-related personal injury claims. AWI will address all asbestos-related claims in the future within the Chapter 11 process. See further discussion regarding AWI's liability for asbestos-related matters in Item 3. Approximately 500 proofs of claim totaling approximately $0.8 billion alleging asbestos-related property damage were filed with the Court. Most of these claims are new to AWI and many were submitted with insufficient documentation to assess their validity. AWI has petitioned the Court to disallow approximately 50 claims totaling approximately $0.5 billion. AWI expects to continue vigorously defending any asserted asbestos-related property damage claims in the Court. AWI believes that it has a significant amount of existing insurance coverage available for asbestos-related property damage liability, with the amount ultimately available dependent upon, among other things, the profile of the claims that may be allowed by the Court. AWI's history of property damage litigation prior to the Chapter 11 filing is described in Item 3. Approximately 2,000 claims totaling approximately $1.9 billion alleging a right to payment for financing, environmental, trade debt and other claims were filed with the Court. AWI has identified approximately 200 of these claims totaling approximately $20 million that it believes should be disallowed by the Court. For these categories of claims, AWI has previously recorded approximately $1.6 billion in liabilities. AWI continues to investigate the claims to determine their validity. AWI continues to evaluate claims. AWI has recorded liability amounts for those claims that can be reasonably estimated and for which it believes are probable of being allowed by the Court. At this time, it is impossible to reasonably estimate the value of all the claims that will ultimately be allowed by the Court. However, it is likely the value of the claims ultimately allowed by the Court will be in excess of amounts presently recorded by AWI and will be material to AWI's financial position and the results of its operations. However, AWI is not able to determine a range of possible liability with any reasonable degree of accuracy, due to the uncertainties of the Chapter 11 process, the in-progress state of AWI's investigation of submitted claims and the lack of documentation submitted in support of many claims. Financing --------- As of December 31, 2001, AWI had no outstanding debt borrowings under its $200 million debtor-in-possession credit facility (the "DIP Facility") and AWI had $193.8 million of cash and cash equivalents, excluding cash held by its non-debtor subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2001, AWI had approximately $8.4 million in letters of credit which were issued pursuant to the DIP Facility. Borrowings are limited to an adjusted amount of receivables, iventories and PP&E. AWI believes that the DIP Facility, together with cash generated from operations, will be more than adequate to address its liquidity needs. Borrowings under the DIP Facility, if any, and obligations to reimburse draws upon the letters of credit constitute superpriority administrative expense claims in the Chapter 11 Case. The DIP Facility is scheduled to expire on December 6, 2002.