Northwest Air Expects to Be Worth $7B

Northwest Airlines Corp. expects to be worth $7 billion when it emerges from bankruptcy, the U.S. carrier said Thursday.

The world’s fifth-largest airline hopes to pay its unsecured creditors at least 74 percent of what they are owed by issuing new stock, Northwest said in a bankruptcy reorganization plan filed in New York.

Northwest expects the stock offering will raise $750 million. Secured creditors would be paid in full.

The reorganization plan must be approved by unsecured creditors and a bankruptcy judge.

The company, based in Eagan, Minn., said it was on track to emerge from federal bankruptcy protection during the second quarter of 2007. A hearing on confirming the plan was set for May 16.

If the airline emerges as it plans, its debt will be $9.3 billion, down from $13.5 billion before filing bankruptcy, the carrier said.

Northwest projected the airline would generate $14 billion in revenue by 2010. Its 2006 revenue was $12.57 billion.