Creditors want answers about the decline of Dura Automotive Systems LLC, a car-parts maker that was sold out of bankruptcy for $65 million on yesterday, 19 months after attracting buyout interest at prices topping $400 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Finding out what happened to Dura, a former crown jewel of turnaround executive Lynn Tilton’s manufacturing empire, will now fall to a chapter 7 trustee. The judge presiding over Dura’s bankruptcy approved its sale to senior lender Bardin Hill Investment Partners LP, which is taking control of the business in exchange for the cancellation of $65 million in debt. Potential buyers walked away after Dura in December chopped its 2019 earnings numbers by as much as half, according to court papers. During the failed sale process, Tilton collected $485,000 in management fees and charged Dura more than $1.4 million for legal fees, according to court papers. The Michigan company and its European operations will survive bankruptcy, thanks in part to support from customers such as Ford Motor Co. The coronavirus pandemic shutdown has Dura in mothballs, but the parts maker is still an essential part of the supply chain for Ford and others in the auto industry.
