Filing Alert: Trinseo Chapter 11

Trinseo PLC, a Wayne, PA-based specialty chemical manufacturer that produces plastics and latex binders for building and construction, automotive, paper and ...

Trinseo PLC and its debtor affiliates⁽¹⁾, a Wayne, PA-based specialty chemical manufacturer that produces plastics and latex binders for building and construction, automotive, paper and packaging, appliances, textiles, and consumer electronics applications, filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 26 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The filing follows an unsustainable approximately $2.9 billion funded debt load against only $162.5 million of 2025 adjusted EBITDA. Persistent industry headwinds—Asia-Pacific overcapacity, tariff and geopolitical volatility, elevated feedstock costs from Middle East conflict, and customer destocking across building and construction, consumer electronics, automotive, and wellness end markets—have eroded free cash flow. Net sales declined from $3.675 billion in 2023 to $3.513 billion in 2024 and $2.975 billion in 2025, with demand recovery not anticipated until 2027 at the earliest. Liquidity pressures accelerated beginning in March 2026 as rising oil prices increased input costs and working capital needs; those pressures, together with Trinseo's NYSE delisting, contributed to credit rating pressure and trade contraction, compounding the legacy overhang from the 2023 and 2025 Refinancings that layered in the Super HoldCo 1L Term Loan Facility and exchanged unsecured notes for second-lien paper at a discount.

The prepackaged filing implements a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring pursuant to an RSA executed May 13, 2026 with the Ad Hoc Group of Senior Secured Creditors (RCF and Super HoldCo 1L holders) and the 2028 OpCo Ad Hoc Group, with support from holders of 78% of funded debt (excluding the OpCo Intercompany Term Loans and the Securitization Program)—including 100% of RCF Claims, approximately 99.9% of Super HoldCo 1L Claims, and approximately 86% of OpCo Term Loan Claims. CastleKnight Management LP, a holder of 2028 OpCo Term Loans and 2L 2029 Notes, is identified as a non-signatory expected to object to confirmation. The Plan contemplates an approximately $2.0 billion deleveraging, a fully backstopped $450 million equity rights offering open to certain prepetition lenders, an Intercompany Settlement allowing the OpCo Intercompany Term Loan Claim at approximately $1.508 billion in principal (resolving Specified Claims around make-whole and yield protection fees identified in the OpCo Investigation conducted by Quinn Emanuel and Portage Point), and exit financing comprising an $850 million term loan and a revolver of at least $200 million. Allowed General Unsecured Claims are unimpaired and to be paid in full in the ordinary course.

To fund the cases, the Debtors have secured $142.5 million in new-money DIP financing alongside a contemporaneous refinancing of the $150 million accounts receivable Securitization Program, with RSA milestones targeting confirmation within 60 days and Plan effectiveness within 180 days of the Petition Date to accommodate ancillary non-U.S. proceedings and regulatory approvals

The company reports $2.3 billion in assets and $3.4 billion in liabilities. The filing indicates that there will be funds available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The case number is 26-90545.

⁽¹⁾ For a complete list of debtor entities, see the Chapter 11 Debtors table.

Chapter 11 Debtors

Affiliated Debtors Chart
Source: Bondoro, Court filings

Top Unsecured Claims

Form 204 Top Unsecured Claims
Source: Bondoro, Court filings

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