Columbus company Burkhalter Rigging has filed for a multi-million dollar bankruptcy in a federal court in Texas.
The company, which has been located in Lowndes County since 1973, specializes in moving heavy equipment for petrochemical, power, civil and marine industries worldwide. On Jan. 31, Dallas, Texas-based attorney Marcus Helt filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of Burkhalter.
The bankruptcy is a voluntary petition allowing a debtor to restructure a company to pay off creditors.
Helt did not return a message from The Dispatch by press time. However, court documents say the company has between 200 and 999 creditors. The company owes unsecured claims in more than $4.3 million for just the top 20 unsecured creditors.
The company has until March 16 to file schedules listing all the money it owes to creditors.
Creditors listed in court documents include Ford Motor Credit Company, MARMAC, LLC, Metropolitan Partners Group Management, LLC and Trustmark National Bank, among others.
Mississippi Department of Revenue and Harris County, Texas, are also listed as creditors on the court’s claim register. Both filed claims of less than $3,000.
Creditors have until May 29 to file claims.
Three creditors — Trussville, Alabama-based Tortorigi Transport, Inc.; Seaford, Delaware-based Trinity Logistics, Inc.; and Birmingham, Alabama-based Craneworks Inc. — filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition for just less than $1 million in federal court in Mississippi the same day as Burkhalter Rigging filed its petition for Chapter 11 in Texas. However, upon learning of Burkhalter’s voluntary petition, attorneys for the three creditors filed a motion to dismiss their complaint.
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy would have forced Burkhalter to liquidate its assets to pay off creditors, rather than restructure its business.
According to court documents, Burkhalter will appoint a chief restructuring officer (CRO) who will be authorized to help construct a budget, work with vendors and assist the company’s management with issues related to restructuring.
Burkhalter Rigging has facilities in Columbus and Rosharon, Texas. The third-generation family business, owned by Delynn Burkhalter, has worked on projects all over the country for nearly 50 years, from rigging projects on bridges in Galveston and Fort Worth — as well as removing spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in record time — to moving superloads of more than 1 million pounds. In 2017, the company won multiple safety awards, including the Zero Accidents Award, given by the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association to companies with no recordable accidents the years before.
Editor’s conflict of interest disclosure: Burkhalter Rigging has a past due advertising balance of $260 with The Dispatch.
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