PORTLAND — Telecommunications company FairPoint Communications Inc. emerged from bankruptcy reorganization Monday, nearly 15 months after filing for Chapter 11 with a crushing debt load and a battered financial sheet.
FairPoint, based in Charlotte, N.C., said its reorganization plan, which became effective 11 days after being approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the southern district of New York, reduces its debt from $2.8 billion to about $1 billion. It said the plan also results in a $75 million credit line.
“We are emerging as a stronger company, focused on our customers, vendors and employees,” Paul Sunu, FairPoint’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
FairPoint owns telephone companies in 18 states. It filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 26, 2009, barely 18 months after buying Verizon’s northern New England landline telephone and Internet operations for $2.3 billion.
Its largest holdings by far are in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, where it has nearly 3,500 employees. Of its 1.6 million access lines, more than 1.3 million are in northern New England.
The company grew sixfold overnight when it bought Verizon’s land holdings, and many skeptics of the sale predicted the company would experience difficulties.
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