The business jet maker Hawker Beechcraft is readying a bankruptcy filing, people briefed on the matter said, dealing a blow to its private equity owners, Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners.
Hawker, which is based in Wichita, KS, says it had obtained $120 million in additional loans to buy it time to fix its balance sheet. In exchange, a majority of the company’s debt holders agreed to defer some interest payments and grant relief from loan covenants.
One of the options Hawker and its advisers are considering is a prearranged Chapter 11 filing that has the consent of those lenders, principally a number of hedge funds, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Among them are the hedge funds Centerbridge Partners and Angelo Gordon.
A Hawker bankruptcy would be put an end to a 2007 private equity deal that was troubled almost from the start. The company was formed when Goldman and Onex, the largest private equity firm in Canada, bought Raytheon’s private jet unit for $3.3 billion, hoping to seize on the fervor for private jets.
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