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Bonanza Creek Energy said on Friday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware approved its restructuring plan, allowing it to exit from bankruptcy protection by the end of the month, the Denver Post reported. The Denver-based oil and gas producer reached an agreement with a majority of its creditors and filed for bankruptcy right before Christmas last year. But a group of dissenting shareholders cried foul, and Bonanza Creek had to go back and craft a deal to win them over. The dissenting shareholders will be allowed to contribute $7.5 million within a $200 million rights offering, giving them a 1.75 percent stake in the company. Bonanza Creek also agree to pay up to $3 million in shareholder legal fees related to their protest. The original plan, which the company said has unanimous support from unsecured creditors, converts $867 million in unsecured debt into equity and eliminates $50 million in annual interest payments. It also provides for $200 million in fresh capital to the company, whose operations are concentrated in the Wattenberg Field northeast of Denver, and in southeastern Arkansas. Read more. 

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U.S. coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. returned to the New York Stock Exchange yesterday after emerging from a year-long $8 billion chapter 11 bankruptcy with far less debt and an industry champion in the White House, Reuters reported. Shares in Peabody, the world's largest private-sector coal producer, were trading at $29.80 in late morning, down from an opening price of $31.50 but still above the $25 per share paid in a recent rights offering open only to the company's creditors. Early market trading put Peabody's market capitalization at around $4 billion, compared to the company's estimated value of $3.1 billion used in its rights offering. Peabody's new stock listing coincides with increased demand from Asia and anticipation of eased regulation under U.S. President Donald Trump that has fueled investor enthusiasm for coal.

U.S. coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. said that it had emerged from chapter 11 protection and was expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today, Reuters reported. The largest U.S. coal producer filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2016, after a sharp drop in coal prices left it unable to service debt of $10.1 billion. The company said that it had reduced its debt by more than $5 billion since March 2016. Peabody will focus on reducing debt, targeting high-return investments and returning cash to shareholders over time, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow said.

A struggling Portland, Ore.-based aviation company is one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported today. A bankruptcy judge in Dallas on Tuesday confirmed Erickson Inc.'s reorganization plan less than five months after the company entered court protection in November. Erickson president and CEO Jeff Roberts said on Wednesday that the company now has a clear path out of bankruptcy. When Ericson filed for chapter 11 in November, it listed $561 million in debt. The company went public in 2012 and acquired Evergreen Helicopters and Air Amazonia in 2013, leaving the company with $355 million in debt just as the oil and gas market began to decline.

Rebel creditors of Peabody Energy Corp.'s reorganization plan have said they intend to appeal a bankruptcy judge's decision to allow the world's largest private sector coal producer to exit chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Schermer in St. Louis approved last week a plan by Peabody, which has valuable coal assets both in the U.S. and Australia, to emerge from bankruptcy in early April with about $2 billion of debt. In a notice of appeal filed with the bankruptcy court in St. Louis, about a dozen money managers who voted against the plan asked an appellate court to review six issues decided by Judge Schermer in approving Peabody's reorganization. Their complaints mostly center around the terms of a private stock sale that formed part of Peabody's plan to slash more than $5 billion of debt and exit bankruptcy. To participate in the private offering, Peabody required creditors to support the reorganization plan. The objecting creditors have said this "premature" buy-in violated the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Ultrapetrol (Bahamas) Ltd., the owner of one of the largest shipping fleets in South America, has sailed through bankruptcy court after spending just over a month in chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain signed off on Ultrapetrol’s chapter 11 plan, which its creditors had already voted to approve. The company, which operates mainly in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay blamed falling commodity prices — namely the concurrent downturns in soybean, oil and gas, and iron ore— for a liquidity squeeze that caused it to run afoul of its borrowing terms. Under the restructuring plan, Southern Cross subsidiary Sparrow Capital Investments Ltd. will acquire Ultrapetrol’s river business, with some 685 barges for $73 million. Proceeds from the sale of the river unit are earmarked for the holding company’s creditors and will be used to retire some $225 million in outstanding bond debt.