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2014-12-11
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Corporate News
DATE: May 15, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOW CORNING VOLUNTARILY FILES FOR CHAPTER 11
Midland, MI, May 15, 1995--Dow Corning corporation today
announced that it has voluntarily filed for protection under
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code with the
United States Bankruptcy Court in Bay City, Michigan.
In announcing today's Chapter 11 filing, Dow Corning's
management emphasized that its underlying business remains
strong and that is customers will not be directly affected by
this action. "Dow Corning will continue to supply products to
our customers, and compensate our suppliers and employees as
we have in the past," explained Richard A. Hazleton,
Dow Corning chairman and chief executive officer. "We decided
to take this action while we are in a position of financial
strength, with the cash to continue operating our business
without disruption.
"We now believe this is our only reasonable choice for
four principal reasons. First, attorneys with lawsuits
outside of the global settlement have not reduced their
exorbitant demands, threatening our long-term business and,
therefore, our ability to fund the global settlement. Despite
the scientific evidence showing no link between implants and
disease, we were faced with preparing for nearly 200 cases in
the next 6 months. This represented a potentially enormous
financial and management drain which threatened our business.
Our Chapter 11 filing immediately stops all lawsuits against
the company," Hazleton explained.
Second, when we file our financial reorganization plan,
we hope to preserve our participation in a local settlement,
to which we have agreed to contribute $ 2 billion. Even so, we
are concerned about the settlement, since many are calling for
hundreds of millions or even billions of more dollars and are
predicting thousands of additional lawsuits. We are
continuing discussions with global settlement attorneys to
reach a satisfactory agreement. But, we have consistently
said that we cannot both fund the global settlement and afford
large numbers of lawsuits outside of the settlement," Hazleton
said.
"Third, several recent credit rating downgrades have
confirmed the financial community's long-term concerns about
the lack of a certain and predictable financial resolution to
this controversy. This understandable concern is in spite of
the underlying strength of our business, which the ratings
agencies understand. The Chapter 11 process will provide
closure by resolving all breast implant financial claims,"
Hazleton explained.
"Finally, some of our insurance carriers have not
accepted their responsibility to commit to pay their share of
the more than $1.5 billion which we believe they will owe us.
As of March 31, 1995, we had received less than $100 million.
We believe we will eventually be reimbursed, but we are not
satisfied with our progress," Hazleton said.
"This was a difficult decision," explained Hazleton. "We
carefully considered what effect this would have on our
customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, well as
women who have our implants. In our judgment, the current and
evolving circumstances surrounding the breast implant
controversy reached the point that we had to take this action
now to preserve both the fundamental strength of our business
operations and our ability to fairly compensate all women with
breast implant claims.
"We are disappointed that our efforts to resolve this
controversy without resorting to a Chapter 11 filing were not
successful. We negotiated a $4.25 billion global settlement,
including $2 billion finding from Dow Corning over 30 years.
We argued or case in court with a good deal of success. We
also committed more than $30 million in additional research to
address the remaining questions women have about their
implants, and we funded an implant removal reimbursement
program for women who wanted to have their implants removed
but lacked the financial means to do so," Hazleton aid.
"Research has not shown a link between breast implants
and the diseases alleged in lawsuits. Research from
prestigious institutions like Harvard University, Mayo Clinic,
Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan and others has
consistently found that women with implants are no more likely
to contract disease than women without implants. In fact,
recently, both the French and British governments have
reviewed the available research and concluded that women with
implants face no greater risk of developing autoimmune disease
than the general population, Hazleton stated.
"Our focus now will be to maintain our strong business
momentum by continuing to meet our customers' needs. We also
intend to work closely with our key creditors and the creditor
committees once they are appointed to complete our financial
restructuring and emerge from Chapter 11 as soon as possible,
although the entire process will probably take two years or
more. We have started this process by filing motions today
with the court that will minimize any disruption to our normal
day-to-day operations," Hazleton explained.
"We at Dow Corning deeply appreciate he outstanding
support we have received from our customers, employees,
suppliers, business and financial partners, and communities
throughout this controversy. We intend to demonstrate that
their confidence in us has been well placed by supplying
quality products and growing our business throughout and
following this Chapter 11 proceeding," Hazleton concluded.
Dow Corning Corp., a global leader in silicon-based
materials, is a Michigan corporation with shares equally owned
by The Dow Chemical Co. and Corning Inc. More than half of
Dow Cornings sales are outside the U.S.