A bankruptcy judge has authorized Celadon Group Inc. to start drawing from an $8.2 million chapter 11 loan that will pay employee wages and fund a planned windup of the trucking carrier, the Wall Street Journal reported. Celadon’s lawyers outlined the company’s path to closing its business at a hearing yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The bankruptcy loan, funded by Celadon’s existing lenders, includes an end-of-January deadline for a court-approved sale of the company’s assets. The financing also is intended to give the Indianapolis-based company a runway to explore a going-concern sale of its Taylor Express Inc. business, which delivers goods principally for the tire industry and to retailers including Lowe’s Cos. Taylor Express is based in North Carolina and operates primarily in the southern and southeastern U.S. A lawyer for Celadon said advisers primarily are focused on completing a sale of Taylor Express at the outset of the chapter 11 process but that the company also will explore possible transactions for its other business.
