New Chapter 15 Filing - Ocean Rig UDW Inc.

Ocean Rig UDW Inc.

• 3/28/17 Recap: Offshore drilling contractor files for bankruptcy under Chapter 15 to EFF the "vulture investors." Seriously. The Company has secured a TRO to block creditors from obstreperously vulturing their way through a potential debt restructuring. While we're somewhat serious about the foregoing, the Company is also in the midst of four interrelated schemes of arrangement and the Chapter 15 is meant to give the Company breathing room to effectuate a debt-for-equity swap thereunder - exchanging $3.7b of debt for new equity, $450mm of new secured notes, and $288mm of cash. The cause of impairment is the obvious: an "unprecedented decline in recent years in petroleum prices and exploration and development activity," which made interest coverage and refinancing difficult.  
• Jurisdiction: S.D. of New York
• Capital Structure: $1.83b '20 TLB, $1.27b '21 TLB, $460mm '17 6.5% DRH secured notes (U.S. Bank NA), $423mm '19 7.25% unsecured notes .     
• Company Professionals:
  • Legal: Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (Evan Hollander, Raniero D'Aversa Jr., Monica Perrigno, Ayanna Lewis-Gruss)
  • Financial Advisor: AlixPartners LLC (Eleanor Fisher, Simon Appell)
  • Investment Banker: Evercore
  • Information Agent: Prime Clerk LLC
• Other Parties in Interest:
  • Highland Floating Rate Opportunities Fund, Highland Global Allocation Fund, Highland Opportunistic Credit Fund, Highland Loan Master Fund LP, NexPoint Credit Strategies Fund 
    • Legal: Venable LLP (Jeffrey Sabin, Konstantinos Katsiris, Carol Weiner Levy)
  • Ad Hoc Group of TL Lenders
    • Legal: Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP (Gerard Uzzi, Mark Shinderman, James Behrens, Brian Kinney)
  • Ad Hoc Group of Holders of 6.5% DRH Secured Notes
    • Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Jayme Sprayragen, Edward Sassower, Brian Schartz, Patrick Nash)
  • Indenture Trustee: US Bank, NA
    • Legal: Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (James Carr, Benjamin Feder)

Updated 3/31/17 3:53 pm