
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 15, 1990                   TAG: 9004150194
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL                                LENGTH: Short

AVTEX LISTS $63 MILLION DEBT

Avtex Fibers Front Royal Inc., which is seeking bankruptcy protection, lists debts of about $63.9 million and property, including cash, worth about $2.6 million in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Reading, Pa., last week.

The defunct military contractor said in court papers it does not know the value of its Front Royal plant. Avtex attorney Bruce Lesser told a meeting of unsecured creditors last week that the value of the property is questionable because of the environmental problems at the site.

Lesser also said assets at the plant had been used to pay off secured creditors.

Avtex shut down its Front Royal plant last fall after several bouts with Attorney General Mary Sue Terry over environmental violations. The company was the single largest corporate polluter in the state.

The company, along with its parent company in Pennsylvania, Avtex Fibers Inc., sought protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in February.

Of the property whose value is claimed, machinery used to make rayon yarn is valued at $2 million.

About $469,000 in cash is deposited at a Pennsylvania bank.

Avtex owes secured creditors a total of $51.5 million. Its largest secured creditors are New England Mutual Life Insurance, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Textron Inc. Avtex Front Royal owes them $36.9 million. It owes FMC Corp., the plant's former owner, $13.3 million for the purchase of the plant, which occurred in 1976.

by CNB