OneWeb announces winning plan sponsorship bidder, eyes loan amendment

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, July 7 – OneWeb Global Ltd. requested court approval of an amendment to its debtor-in-possession credit agreement that provides additional liquidity to fund its Chapter 11 cases through the closing of a proposed sale of its common stock to its newly named plan sponsor, according to a motion filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

OneWeb said it has selected BidCo 100 Ltd. as the successful bidder to acquire the newly issued common stock of the reorganized company through a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

BidCo is a private limited company organized under the Laws of England and Wales that will be capitalized by Bharti Global Ltd. and the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

To that end, the company said plan sponsor BidCo 100 has agreed to step in as a lender under OneWeb’s debtor-in-possession term loan facility and provide additional funding under that facility to address those liquidity needs.

Specifically, the sponsor will provide up to $110 million of new-money funding through taking assignment of or replacing, and funding $45 million of currently unfunded new-money commitments under the DIP facility and additional funding commitments of $65 million under the DIP facility.

According to the motion, current lead DIP lender SoftBank Group Corp. has indicated that it expects to consent to the assignment and other requisite modifications to the DIP facility.

Under the plan sponsorship agreement, BidCo will deliver $100 million in cash and equity interests worth $100 million.

The cash consideration will be used to pay allowed DIP claims, as well as other claims to be satisfied in cash. The equity consideration will be issued to the holders of secured notes claims, including Softbank Group Corp., Banco Azteca, SA, Institucion de Banca Multiple, Airbus Group Proj BV, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda.

On and following the plan effective date, the sponsor will provide up to $850 million of funding, less the amount of the interim funding, to fund all cure costs associated with assumed executory contracts, up to $25.9 million of administrative claims, priority tax claims, priority non-tax claims and other secured claims required to receive cash payments and the reorganized company’s business going forward.

The sponsor shall also contribute $3 million toward a winddown budget.

Holders of general unsecured claims will receive treatment to be determined by the sponsor.

Existing OneWeb interests will be cancelled, and holders will receive no distribution.

A hearing is scheduled for July 10.

Arlington, Va.-based OneWeb develops a constellation of satellites to enable internet access. The company filed bankruptcy on March 27 under Chapter 11 case number 20-22437.

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