mBank wins community impact award

An Upper Peninsula bank has won a national award for helping pull a major employer in its hometown out of bankruptcy.

mBank has won the 2013 Restructuring Community Impact Award from The M&A Advisor.

When Manistique Papers went bankrupt in 2011, mBank helped the paper mill avoid closing permanently.

mBank bought the company’s debt and allowed the mill to reorganize under Chapter 11.

MPI’s original lender wanted the paper mill to be liquidated through Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Manistique Papers did close for a short time, but it re-opened in late 2011.

The Watermill Group, a Massachusetts private investment firm, bought the company last spring.

The mill now goes by the name FutureMark Manistique.