Almost three months after securing bondholder support for a prepackaged bankruptcy proceeding, Ultrapetrol Bahamas Ltd., a company that floats energy boats throughout South America, filed for chapter 11 protection on Feb. 6 in the bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y., American Lawyer reported. The Nassau, Bahamas-based company lists $776.58 million in assets against $565.95 million in liabilities in its bankruptcy petition. Ultrapetrol, in a tally of its 40 largest unsecured creditors, also owes money to law firms in the U.K. and Paraguay. Gateley, a British firm that in 2015 began trading publicly, is listed as being owed $311,237 by the debtor, which owes another $70,950 for legal services to Paraguay’s Palacios, Prono & Talavera. Ultrapetrol is an industrial shipping company that specializes in river barges that move petroleum products. The company, whose general counsel is Argentine lawyer Diego Alvarez-Blanco, does business in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. In court papers, Ultrapetrol blamed a liquidity crisis caused by “deteriorating market conditions affecting the energy and natural resource industries,” as precipitating its bankruptcy case. Read more.
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