Atlas Resource Partners, L.P. (OTCMKTS:ARPJ) shares were down 59.57% on Tuesday to $0.0154 after the company filed for bankruptcy protection. The company has a market cap of $1.57 million at 102.43 million shares outstanding. Shares have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.01 to $4.62.
At the start of this week, Atlas Resource Partners announced that it entered a Restructuring Support Agreement with its Revolving Credit Facility lenders, Second Lien lenders and approximately 80% of its Senior Noteholders. Under this agreement, the company can be able to reduce its debt by approximately $900 million and interest expense by $80 million per year.
Atlas Resource Partners is an independent developer and producer of natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids, with operations in basins across the United States. Also, the company is a sponsor and manager of tax-advantaged investment drilling partnerships, in which it co-invests, to finance a portion of its natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids production activities.
The company has decided to pursue a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in which the firm will sell its oil and natural gas hedges and pay the firm’s credit facility debt down to $440 million. Out of this amount, $30 million will be a non-conforming tranch beyond the amount that’s permitted to be borrowed, which means that the company will have to find a way to come up with the difference until next year.
Aside from that, the cash interest expense payable on the Second Lien Term Loan will be immediately reduced to 2% upon the commencement of the restructuring proceedings. Second Lien Term Loan holders will also receive 10% of the common equity of the emerged company. Meanwhile, owners of common and preferred units of stock will receive nothing as a result of the restructuring, which explains the sharp selloff in shares.
After this restructuring, the company plans on emerging from the execution of this plan as Titan Energy LLC.
