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While many people spent their Memorial Day weekend ringing in summer, Andrew Beal was on a plane to Pittsburgh. Such are the sacrifices for those who want to be part of the world of debtor-in- possession financing.
Beal is the founder of Plano, Texas-based Beal Bank, whose Beal Capital Markets Inc. unit provided its first-ever DIP - a $15 million replacement post-petition financing to bankrupt Adelphia Business Solutions Inc. -- thanks to that fateful trip.
A risky first effort? Sources close to the ABS situation said it's unlikely the company will ever use the Beal DIP. Still, the initial DIP lender, the company's former parent, Adelphia Communications Corp., had made a $135 million commitment, $15 million of which Coudersport, Pa.-based ABS drew down. (Adelphia Communications, now bankrupt, too, agreed to be primed on what it's owed, so it's now a creditor with priority subordinate to Beal's.)
While banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. have become major DIP lenders to defend...