Samson Resources Corp's chief executive officer plans to resign, a lawyer for the bankrupt oil and gas producer told a judge on Oct. 29, adding that the company's six-week-old restructuring deal is in peril due to tumbling natural gas prices.
CEO Randy Limbacher will continue in his role until December to smooth the transition, said Joshua Sussberg, Samson's lawyer.
Sussberg said the continuing dive in commodity prices has unraveled the company's restructuring support agreement, or RSA, struck just before it entered bankruptcy. He said the company and lenders were negotiating for new terms to refinance.
"The initial RSA can be terminated at any moment," said Sussberg. He said milestones in the deal had not been met.
"As of yesterday, the spot price for gas was down 30 percent from commencement of this case," he said.
Samson entered bankruptcy in September with a plan to reduce its billions in debt by swapping control to a group of investors who held the company's $1 billion second-lien loan. Those lenders were also planning to buy $450 million in stock in the reorganized Samson.
Sussberg said a new deal was being negotiated that might provide less value for the holders of the company's second-lien loan.
The group of lenders includes affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, Columbia Management, Credit Suisse, Eaton Vance Management, Invesco Ltd, New York Life Insurance Co and Silver Point Capital, according to court documents.
Holders of $2.5 billion unsecured bonds will receive almost nothing under the proposed plan.
Samson's bankruptcy comes four years after the company agreed to be acquired in a leveraged buyout led by KKR, for $7.2 billion. KKR and its partners on the buyout made a big bet on the future of shale oil and gas, investing $4.15 billion in equity on the deal. The rest was funded with debt.
The case is Samson Resources Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, 15-11934.
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