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

DATE: MONDAY, April 16, 1990                   TAG: 9004160277
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL                                LENGTH: Short

AVTEX SEEKS BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION

Avtex Fibers Front Royal Inc. has debts of about $63.9 million and property worth about $2.6 million, according to court papers filed in Reading, Pa.

The defunct military contractor, which is seeking bankruptcy protection, said 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.

Avtex shut down its Front Royal plant last fall after the state Water Control Board revoked its discharge permit. The company was the single largest corporate polluter in the state.

Of the property whose value is claimed, machinery used to make rayon yarn is valued at $2 million and about $469,000 in cash is deposited in 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. - Associated Press

by CNB