Mr. Alapont: Federal-Mogul is one of the long-standing companies in the industry; it started in 1899 and has a long history. In the last few years, the company grew very fast through acquisitions. But one of those acquisitions resulted in major asbestos liabilities for the company.
TWST: That was in the late 1990s?
Mr. Alapont: Correct, in 1998 to be precise. It was T&N, a British group which used asbestos in their products. In 2001 the company filed for Chapter 11 and U.K. administration, with the vast majority of the legal entities in bankruptcy in the United Kingdom.
TWST: What happened?
Mr. Alapont: During a period of time, four years, the company tried several times to emerge unsuccessfully. I joined the company in March 2005 and one year later we managed to take out of bankruptcy Federal-Mogul in all legal entities under U.K. administration. We did the same thing at the end of 2007 in the United States when Federal-Mogul emerged from Chapter 11. With that we started what we'll call a new Federal-Mogul, and we listed the company at this time on the NASDAQ under FDML. We have been, since then, developing our global strategies.
Tickers included in this excerpt: FDML
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