Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Blackstone Group LP are gearing up to fight bankrupt Samson Resources Corp.’s plan to hand itself over to lenders led by Cerberus Capital Management LP, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The holders of Samson’s $2.25 billion of 9.75 percent senior unsecured notes maturing February 2020 argue that oil and gas prices have dropped so low that the $1 billion second-lien term loan held by the Cerberus group is now worthless. Under the plan now in place, Cerberus and other lenders including Silver Point Capital LP and Anschutz Investment Co. would cancel the debt Samson owes them in exchange for ownership. They would then use as much as $485 million to pay down first-lien debt that ranks ahead of them and fund operations. Under that scenario, the bondholders claim that they would be wiped out.
