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Spansion’s Japanese manufacturing arm files for bankruptcy protection
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In a new twist to the efforts to save Spansion from a fast liquidation, newly appointed President and CEO, John Kispert has arranged for its Japanese arm to enter into bankruptcy protection as part of Spansion’s restructuring efforts. At the core of Spansion Japan is its 300mm NOR flash memory fab, which is the company’s most advanced and cost competitive production facility.
"We intend for Spansion Japan to continue to operate throughout the restructuring period," said John Kispert,in a statement. "Our Japanese operations have sufficient cash on hand to meet their immediate, short-term working capital needs and we plan to maintain our high standards of excellence and our commitments to product quality, safety and outstanding customer service."
Spansion said in a statement that Spansion Japan has sufficient funds to continue operations for the current time but has debts of approximately US$810 million.
Spansion also said that it was continuing talks with creditors of its US$625 million Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes that are due to expire in 2013 in order to find ways to secure restructuring goals that would also assist in attracting new investors or a buyer of the company.
However, the bankruptcy filing in Japan means that both Spansion Japan and Spansion LLC are in now in default of some of its debt instruments.