Seadrill Ltd’s unsecured creditors’ committee said that it has hired an investment banker and is looking into transactions made by the global offshore drilling contractor before it filed for chapter 11 protection in Texas last month, Reuters reported yesterday. “We are looking at numerous pre-petition transactions that were described at least in part” in Chapter 11 filings by Seadrill on Sept. 12, the committee’s lawyer, Douglas Mannal, of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP said at a hearing yesterday in Houston. While it was unclear which transactions the committee was studying, Seadrill made some amendments to secured credit facilities before filing for creditor protection. In one instance, Seadrill said on Aug. 17 that it had amended three secured credit facilities related to rigs purchased by New York-listed Seadrill Partners LLC to insulate the U.S. affiliate from events of default related to the chapter 11 proceedings by removing it as a borrower or guarantor. In a Sept. 13 court filing, Seadrill said it had successfully ring-fenced its non-consolidated affiliates, including Seadrill Partners LLC, SeaMex Ltd and Archer Ltd.
