HALLIBURTON ASBESTOS DEAL OK’D:

Houston’s Halliburton announced that settlement agreements involving asbestos claims were approved on Nov. 18, 2004, and Nov. 29, 2004. The Honorable Judith K. Fitzgerald approved settlements concerning asbestos related claims against DII Industries, Kellogg Brown & Root and other affected Halliburton subsidiaries, and all appealing insurance carriers. Halliburton said the “settlements, together with other previously announced insurance settlements, provide a global resolution to the debtors’ insurance disputes which will result in the receipt of over $1.5 billion in cash and permit the successful conclusion of the bankruptcy proceedings.” It added that the agreements involved settlements with “over 100 solvent and insolvent London-based insurance companies, over 50 domestic insurance companies and other companies with which DII Industries shares insurance coverage.” The company said two “of the settlement agreements involve matters relevant to Harbison-Walker Refractories Company and Federal-Mogul Products Inc., both debtors in their own bankruptcy proceedings, and the Bankruptcy Courts in those proceedings also have entered orders approving these settlements.” The bulletin noted the “approval orders are now final and the settling insurers are obligated immediately to dismiss their appeals to the Bankruptcy Court’s confirmation order and their motion to vacate the District Court’s affirmation order.” Halliburton expects to conclude the bankruptcy by the end of the year and to fund “the trusts by the end of January 2005.”

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