Hedstrom Files for Bankruptcy Protection

Hedstrom Corp., a unit of leveraged buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., filed for Bankruptcy Court protection after slumping sales and mounting debts left the maker of children’s outdoor toys struggling to survive. Hedstrom, best-known as a maker of swing sets and slides, listed $399 million in assets and $337 million in debts in its Chapter 11 petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The Pittsburgh-based company has seen sales and profitability decline among its different units since September 1998, according to Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service, which evaluate corporation’s debt loads.

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