The bankrupt NORPAC Foods cooperative is reviewing four offers to buy portions of its assets at a time its creditors are increasingly demanding to collect on their debts.

Albert Kennedy, the processing company’s attorney, said NORPAC was analyzing the four offers during a Nov. 12 court hearing on whether to terminate the “automatic stay” that prevents creditors from foreclosing on collateral under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Kennedy urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter McKittrick not to immediately terminate the automatic stay so that NORPAC can “profitably” use several more days to examine the purchase proposals, which it hasn’t yet had a chance to discuss with creditors.

CoBank, the company’s largest creditor, has a forbearance agreement not to seize collateral or take other remedial actions against NORPAC for defaulting on loan conditions until Nov. 15.

The bank and other creditors, including several farms who supplied NORPAC with crops on contract, had sought to terminate the “automatic stay” but Judge McKittrick said he’d hold off on making such a decision until a hearing on Nov. 18, after the forbearance agreement had expired.

Teresa Pearson, attorney for CoBank, said the bank has an interest in preventing NORPAC from entering a “free fall meltdown” but it also doesn’t want its “hands tied” when the forbearance agreement expires, since there’s no chance of actually reorganizing the company as a going concern.

At that point, it’s possible that transactions selling the company’s assets may solidify or the bank may extend more funding, but “something will have to happen,” Pearson said. It’s also possible that NORPAC’s assets will be sold under the control of a court-appointed receiver, which is a type of custodian that oversees a company’s finances.

Attorneys for NORPAC’s farm creditors said they wanted to maintain an orderly process and to gain clarity on the bankruptcy court’s role if the automatic stay is terminated.

Castle Rock Farming, a farm creditor, would love to see the transactions selling NORPAC’s assets move forward, but it also wants to preserve its rights, said Oren Haker, the farm’s attorney. “We have growers who are relying on getting paid this year for next year.”

NORPAC has more than $165 million in debts and about $315 million in assets, including Oregon processing facilities in Stayton, Brooks and Salem and a plant in Quincy, Wash.

When the farm cooperative entered bankruptcy proceedings in August, it had intended to sell most of its assets to agricultural entrepreneur Frank Tiegs for $155 million.

However, that deal fell apart last month after Tiegs said he’d become concerned about regulatory and environmental problems at NORPAC.