Peabody Energy Corp. won bankruptcy court approval to put its restructuring plan to a creditor vote in hopes of exiting chapter 11 protection in the coming months, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The bankruptcy court allowed Peabody to press forward with its chapter 11 plan and also signed off on a pact pledging top creditors’ support for that plan. Creditors have until March 3 to vote, and Peabody is set to return to court on March 16 for a hearing on the plan itself. The plan aims to cut a debt load of approximately $10 billion in half so that Peabody, one of several large miners that have turned to bankruptcy in recent years amid industry challenges, can exit chapter 11 in the spring. The plan proposes to raise $1.5 billion in new capital to fund the coal miner’s restructuring, half of which will come from a rights offering of new common shares and the other half of which will come from a private placement of convertible preferred shares. Peabody is also seeking to borrow $1.5 billion in bankruptcy exit financing. Peabody’s U.S. coal mines are concentrated in the Powder River basin in Colorado and the Illinois Basin in the Midwest. It sought chapter 11 protection in April.
