Chesapeake Energy Corp., the U.S. natural gas driller that’s been slashing jobs and investor payouts to conserve dwindling cash flows, lost half its value after a report that it hired restructuring attorneys, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The shares dropped a record 51 percent after Debtwire reported that Chesapeake retained Kirkland & Ellis to help restructure a $9.8 billion debt load. The plunge triggered three circuit-breaker halts during the first half hour of trading and extended Chesapeake’s 12-month loss to about 93 percent. The free fall wiped out $838 million in market value in the first hour of trading on Monday. Burdened with a debt load eight times larger than its market value, Chesapeake has been canceling drilling projects, trimming its workforce and closing offices to slow the rate at which it burns through cash. Gas, which accounts for about 80 percent of Chesapeake’s production, has averaged about $2.56 per million British thermal units during the past year, down 38 percent from a year earlier.
