Milliken Pursues Acquisition of Thomas Industries

Dalton, GA, Aug. 5, 2008--TI Acquisition LLC, a manufacturer of carpeting and textiles operating as Thomas Industries LLC, among other names, has sought bankruptcy protection from creditors and wants to sell its assets to  Milliken & Co.

TI Acquisition also operates as Mattel Carpet & Rug, Templeton Carpet Mills, Superior Yarn Technology and Monticello Floors.

The company, based in Dalton, listed assets of $42.3 million against debt totaling $55.7 million in Chapter 11 documents filed July 28 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rome, Georgia.

The company began suffering severe financial difficulties last year and signed an original letter of intent with Milliken on Nov. 29, updating it in both April and June of this year.

In January, one of TI Acquisition's largest customers filed for bankruptcy, owing TI $2 million, according to bankruptcy court documents. That not only hurt TI's cash flow but substantially reduced the amount of money it could borrow in its revolving line of credit.

The June update to Milliken's letter of intent made the acquisition contingent on buying it throught bankruptcy proceedings.

Without an infusion of cash, and debt reduction, the company said it probably can't survive even on a short term basis.

The 20 largest creditors without collateral backing their claims are owed a total of $10.8 million, court papers show. Bank of America NA, the largest secured claimholder, is owed a total of $28.6 million.