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The Atcon Group, a New Brunswick-based construction company with subsidiaries that includes Atcon Logistics Inc., has been forced into receivership. Miramichi Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Riordon agreed to place several Atcon companies in receivership Monday, with their assets placed under the control of bankruptcy professionals. Scotiabank, the company's biggest creditor, called in its loans last week and applied for The Acton Group to be placed in receivership. Riordon placed Atcon Group Inc., Atcon Holdings Inc., Atcon Property Holdings Inc., Atcon Veneer Products Inc. and Atcon Logistics Inc. into receivership using the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Five other Atcon companies were granted 30 days protection from creditors, under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. A court-appointed monitor will oversee those companies while they continue to operate, and try to come up with a plan to save them. The matter will be back in court on March 15 so the judge can assess the plan's progress, and decide how to proceed. At stake is as much as $70-million in taxpayers' money and hundreds of jobs. Last year, the New Brunswick government extended three different loan guarantees to Miramichi-based Atcon worth a combined $50 million. Those were on top of earlier loan guarantees and loans, which elevated the provincial government's exposure to roughly $70 million.
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