Bouchard gets approval to access $65 million of replacement DIP loan

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., April 6 – Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc. received interim approval to access $65 million of a $90 million replacement debtor-in-possession new money term loan facility with JMB Capital Partners Lending, LLC as administrative agent and lender, according to an order filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

A final hearing is scheduled for April 29.

This facility is replacing the company’s previous $60 million DIP facility with Hartree Partners, LP as agent, as previously reported.

Although the debtors received access to the first draw amount provided by the DIP facility with Hartree, they were unable to obtain access to a second draw. Over the last three months, however, the debtors and Hartree negotiated three emergency loans to fund payroll and other employee-related expenses.

The limitations on the emergency loans meant the debtors still required additional capital to, among other things, service post-petition trade payables, continue to fund employee payroll and benefits, satisfy bankruptcy costs, and fund vessel repairs necessary to return their revenue-generating assets to ordinary course operation.

To that end, the debtors negotiated and received court approval of an “advance” on the aircraft sale proceeds through an incremental $5 million DIP term loan with their pre-petition secured lender, Fortress Credit Co LLC.

Bouchard said that incremental liquidity, though not enough to fund the entire reorganization, provided time to run a comprehensive marketing process to raise a new DIP facility that will repay Hartree and support a viable path to exit while right-sizing the debtors’ business and returning vessels to operation.

Bouchard said the replacement facility is the product of an extensive marketing process that launched on Feb. 24.

The replacement facility bears interest at 9%, compared to Libor plus 700 basis points with a 1% Libor floor for the previous facility. There is a 2% commitment fee and a 5% exit fee on the replacement facility, compared to a 1% restructuring fee and an up to $3 million exit fee on the previous facility.

The previous facility had an original issue discount of 5%, while the replacement facility has none.

The replacement facility matures on March 31, 2022, compared to Oct. 22, 2021 for the previous facility.

The replacement facility is secured by a first lien on all 31 vessels that are not Wells Fargo collateral and by a second lien on the Wells Fargo collateral, compared to the previous facility, which was secured by a first lien on only nine specified vessels.

Bouchard Transportation is an ocean-going petroleum barge company based in Melville, N.Y. The company filed bankruptcy on Sept. 28, 2020 under Chapter 11 case number 20-34682.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.