Schulte Represents WMLP Secured Lenders in Acquisition of Kemmerer Mine in Westmoreland Bankruptcy Cases

On June 21, 2019, Kemmerer Operations LLC, an entity established by the secured lenders (“WMLP Secured Lenders”) to Westmoreland Resource Partners LP and its subsidiaries (“WMLP Debtors”), acquired the Kemmerer coal mine and certain other assets out of the WMLP Debtors’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in exchange for a $300-million credit bid. Westmoreland Coal Company and certain of its affiliates, including the WMLP Debtors, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on October 9, 2018. The WMLP Secured Lenders agreed, as part of the Kemmerer sale, to fund the payment of certain claims and wind-down costs enabling the WMLP Debtors to confirm their Chapter 11 plan and emerge from bankruptcy. The Schulte team worked with the WMLP Secured Lenders to, among other things, put new management and operations in place and facilitate the successful acquisition of the assets.

The Schulte team representing the WMLP Secured Lenders in connection with the Westmoreland Chapter 11 cases, including the WMLP Secured Lenders’ acquisition of the Kemmerer mine and the other assets, was led by business reorganization partner Kristine Manoukian. The team also included business reorganization associate Kelly (Bucky) Knight; employment & employee benefits partners Ronald Richman and Ian Levin and special counsel Scott Gold; litigation partner Peter White and special counsel Jason Mitchell; tax partner Dan Kusnetz; environmental special counsel Theodore Keyes; and former Schulte lawyers Andrew Fadale, Marc Friess, Richard Presutti, Lucy Kweskin, Christian Bonser and Sarah Sullivan.