Walter Energy Closes Sale of Alabama Assets to Warrior Met Coal

Paul, Weiss client Walter Energy announced the close of the sale of substantially all of its core assets, comprising its Alabama coal assets, to Warrior Met Coal, LLC, an entity owned by the company's first lien creditors. On January 8, the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama entered an order approving the sale pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code and entry into an asset purchase agreement setting forth the terms of the sale transaction, after a court-supervised auction process.

With the close of this transaction, Walter Energy has transferred ownership of virtually all of its U.S. operating assets to third parties under the court-supervised sale process. Earlier this year, it completed the sale of its non-core U.S. assets to Seminole Coal Resources, LLC, ERP Compliant Coke, LLC and ERP Environmental Fund, Inc., all affiliates of ERP Compliant Fuels, LLC and Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, Inc.

The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, bankruptcy partners Kelley Cornish and Stephen Shimshak and counsel Claudia Tobler and Diane Meyers; corporate partners Toby Myerson, David Huntington and Thomas de la Bastide and counsel Bruce Gruder; litigation partners Allan Arffa, Daniel Leffell, Les Fagen, Andrew Gordon, Stephen Lamb and Jaren Janghorbani and counsel Robert Kravitz; antitrust counsel Didier Malaquin and Marta Kelly; tax partner Scott Sontag; employee benefits partner Robert Fleder and counsel Reuven Falik; and environmental partner Gaines Gwathmey.