Speedcast International Ltd.’s largest secured lender is trying to top Centerbridge Partners LP’s $395 million offer to buy the satellite communications company out of bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Black Diamond Capital Management LLC on Thursday submitted a bid to acquire Speedcast’s assets and challenge Centerbridge for control of the company, these people said. The Black Diamond bid came a day after Speedcast, which connects cruise ships and oil rigs to internet and phone services, filed court papers laying out a proposed equity sale to Centerbridge. Speedcast is scheduled to appear today in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston to seek permission to cover expenses in connection with Centerbridge’s equity commitment. The company has proposed folding Centerbridge’s offer into a chapter 11 repayment plan that would, if approved, pay off Speedcast’s $180 million bankruptcy loan in full while covering only a fraction of the company’s roughly $600 million in remaining secured debt. Black Diamond has said that its bid ascribes a higher value to Speedcast and would deliver a $165 million recovery to the secured debt, compared to $39.5 million under the Centerbridge bid, according to one of the people familiar. Speedcast hasn’t formally responded to Black Diamond’s bid, which would take the form of an asset sale.
