Two weeks after choosing not to make an interest pay of $21.5 million, Oklahoma City-based Seventy Seven Energy Inc. is apparently still on path toward filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company announced May 13 it had entered into a second amended and restated restructuring support agreement with some of its lenders. It was a move that Chief Executive Officer Jerry Winchester said would “provide us with a significantly deleveraged balance sheet and we will emerge from this process with the ability to take advantage of our operational strengths and strong asset base to grow our business as market conditions improve.”
He said the company intended to commence a prepackaged Chapter 11 proceeding on or before June 9 in order to implement the plan.
A key component of the plant, according to Seventy Seven’s announcement was that all trade creditors, suppliers and contractors would be paid in the ordinary course of business. It also said employees could expect that operations will continue as usual and they would be paid in the ordinary course.
On May 17, Seventy Seven Energy Inc. was notified by the New York Stock Exchange that because of “abnormally low” trading price levels, the exchange had started proceedings to delist the common stock. Trading in Seventy Seven’s common stock was suspended immediately prior to the opening of trading on May 17, 201.
