TNT Crane & Rigging Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection with votes of support in hand for a balance-sheet reshaping designed to preserve the business in the face of disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Houston-based company was thriving when Russia’s oil price war with Saudi Arabia and the pandemic slammed its clients in the hard-hit oil-and-gas sector, Chief Executive Michael Appling said in court papers. TNT is pivoting away from energy customers, and moving into or expanding other construction and industrial markets, with its business of providing cranes, engineering and operators. Suppliers, employees and other unsecured creditors won’t be affected by the bankruptcy. On the financial front, the crane company was facing looming maturities within months on $466 million of its $666 million in funded debt. TNT’s capital structure was created in 2013, when it was acquired by First Reserve Corp., a private-equity firm. Talks with leading creditors were successful, and TNT arrived in bankruptcy having already counted the ballots from lenders, including First Reserve, to get it swiftly through and out of chapter 11. Bankruptcy will cost First Reserve its ownership stake in the company, which is teed up for a takeover by first-lien lenders, according to court papers. Much of the debt dates back to First Reserve’s acquisition of the company.
