Midstates Petroleum Company, Inc. announced that the Company has amended its Senior Secured Credit Agreement effective November 16, 2018. This amendment improves the Company’s financial flexibility by removing certain restrictions for cash payments pertaining to share repurchases and dividends.
The amendment imposes a minimum liquidity requirement of $50 million and states that the Company’s total net indebtedness to EBITDA ratio for the most recent four fiscal quarters must not exceed 1.50:1.00 in order to make cash distributions to shareholders or to effectuate any share repurchases.
David Sambrooks, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “As we communicated in our third quarter release, given Midstates’ strong financial position and forecasted significant free cash flow generation, we have been evaluating ways to return capital to shareholders through a possible share tender, share repurchase program or cash dividends.”
He said the amendment is a necessary first step to allow the company additional flexibility to return capital to shareholders.
Midstates reported third quarter net income of $11.5 million or 44-cents a share. A year earlier, the company’s third quarter net income was only $3.7 million or 14 cents per share.