Ciber's Sale Money Divided Up in Court-Filed Plan

By Katy Stech Ferek

Lawyers who sold IT firm Ciber's operations out of bankruptcy for $93 million have unveiled a plan to split up the sale money to repay the Colorado company's older debts.

The 249-page plan filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Monday projects that nearly $20 million will be ready for distribution once the plan receives approval from creditors and from Judge Brendan Shannon.

Roughly $35.7 million from Ciber's sale to competitor HTC Global Services Inc. has paid off its bankruptcy loan.

Lawyers who put Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Ciber's operations into bankruptcy have asked Judge Shannon to set a Nov. 15 hearing to look over the voting results.

Ciber, which operates in the U.S., the U.K., and Denmark, and has centers in India, Vietnam and Poland, sought bankruptcy protection in mid-April after its balance sheet took a hit due to years of decline in demand and performance in its European market. Since 2014, Ciber's customers have left, making it difficult for the European operations to return to profitability.

Founded in 1974, the company grew over decades by making more than 60 acquisitions at the cost of more than $1 billion. Last year, it took in roughly $610 million in revenue.

Ciber officials said that the expansion made its operations scattered and tough to manage, leading some of its divisions in Europe to lose customers and money. Some overseas divisions closed. The trouble made it tough to comply with the fixed-charge-coverage-ratio requirements of its roughly $28 million loan, they said in court papers.

Michigan-based HTC Global won an auction for most of Ciber's remaining business units. The deal closed on June 8.

Under Ciber's recently filed debt-repayment plan, unsecured creditors, a group owed between $17 million and $44 million, would recover at least 37 cents on the dollar. The process would leave no money for shareholders. Ciber's shares until recently traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Lillian Rizzo contributes to this article.

Write to Katy Stech Ferek at katherine.stech@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 03, 2017 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)

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