Pacific Drilling SA’s lenders are threatening a revolt if the offshore oil-and-gas driller chooses to pursue a restructuring plan backed by its owner, WSJ Pro reported. In court papers filed Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, lawyers for a group of senior lenders pressured Pacific Drilling to choose a different lender-backed plan, which they say is the only option that can deliver a prompt exit from chapter 11. Pacific Drilling’s board is currently considering two reorganization plans, one backed by senior lenders and the other backed by the company’s majority equity owner, Israeli shipping magnate Idan Ofer’s Quantum Pacific (Gibraltar) Ltd. The board’s independent directors are set to decide which plan to pursue later this week. In Friday’s objection to Pacific Drilling’s so-called exclusivity period, which gives the company the exclusive right to file a reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court, lenders said the Quantum-backed plan would “embroil these estates in protracted, costly and unnecessary litigation.” Should Pacific Drilling choose the Quantum’s plan, lenders said the company’s exclusivity period should be extinguished and that they should be allowed to float a plan of their own. The lender-backed plan would provide as much as $1 billion in new financing to the company, and lenders would also backstop a $500 million equity rights offering, court papers show. General unsecured creditors would be paid in full. The matter is set to go before Judge Michael Wiles at a hearing Thursday.
