"The debtors have already made progress toward that sale, and we expect that process to accelerate with confirmation," Kirkland & Ellis' Marc Kieselstein told Hollis.
ITR Concession received the judge's approval for a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which had the support of more than 98 percent of senior secured lenders. ITR Concession CEO Fernando Redondo listened intently to the proceedings from the front row of the courtroom in Chicago.
A number of pension funds and international infrastructure investors are already joining forces to prepare bids for the toll road, according to a report earlier this month from Thomson Reuters.
If the effort to sell the 75-year lease to the highest bidder fails, a "plan B" to restructure its debt would kick in, Kieselstein said.
In June 2006, ITR Concession, an Australian-Spanish consortium, won the right to operate and collect tolls on the road for 75 years by paying the state of Indiana $3.8 billion.
A stipulation regarding the Indiana Finance Authority's role in the sales process was also approved in Tuesday's court proceeding.
U.S. Sen. Joseph Donnelly, D-Ind., and numerous Democratic elected officials in northern Indiana have called on the Indiana Finance Authority to exercise its rights under the lease and repossess the road.
Indiana Finance Authority Director Kendra York recently responded to Donnelly by letter, telling him the state has no intention of reclaiming the Toll Road. She said the Toll Road never covered its costs under state operation. And she stated other state highway needs would have been neglected if not for the lease.
However, critics have responded that tolls were increased sharply on the Toll Road as part of the 2006 deal under which it was handed off to ITR Concession, raising gross revenue far above pre-lease levels.
Judge Hollis finalized a number of other orders at Tuesday's 33-minute hearing. Among them were orders allowing ITR Concession to continue paying wages and benefits to its 260 employees and to pay bills from vendors.