A federal judge today approved Enron's plan to reorganise its debts.
The decision paves the way for the failed energy trading giant to emerge from bankruptcy protection before the end of this year.
More than two-and-a-half years after the Houston company collapsed amid questions about its financial reporting, US Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez confirmed the plan.
The judge's approval was widely expected as a vast majority of Enron's creditors had signed off on the plan.
Under his ruling, the plan will become effective by the end of the year, letting the company begin distributing proceeds to creditors. The effective date could come sooner if Enron meets certain conditions. However, "there is no firm effective date" set in the ruling, an Enron spokeswoman said.
The company has said it expects to distribute about $11 billion in cash and equity in some key assets to lenders and bondholders. Last month Enron's lawyers estimated about $130 billion in claims were still pending, and said they intended to chop down the total to $62 billion after negotiations.
Based on that lower claims figure, creditors to Enron's largest units would get about 18 cents to 22 cents on the dollar.
The second-largest corporate bankruptcy in US history had more than its share of legal battles and stumbling blocks along the way.
When it declared bankruptcy on December 2nd, 2001, the company left about 24,000 creditors in the lurch, who eventually filed about $1 trillion in claims.
Enron's former chairman and chief executive, Kenneth Lay, last week pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he took part in a conspiracy to dupe investors. Lay was the latest, and highest-ranking, Enron executive to be charged by federal prosecutors.