Ezra Files U.S. Bankruptcy as Offshore Services Woes Spread
Ezra Holdings Ltd., a Singapore-listed offshore services group, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. from hostile creditors as the energy support sector struggles from three years of weak oil prices.
Ezra and two affiliates, Ezra Marine Services Pte. and EMAS IT Solutions Pte., filed for Chapter 11 protection March 18 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York, MANA correspondent reported.
Ezra listed consolidated long-term assets with a value of $1.3 billion and current assets of $623 million for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2016, according to court papers.
The move by Ezra, whose stock has plummeted 98 percent in the past three years, reflects the distressed state of offshore oil and gas services firms as their debt piled up amid contract delays or cancellations. Crude prices slide led explorers to cut spending, pushing service providers in Singapore such as Swiber Holdings Ltd. and Swissco Holdings Ltd. to embark on a court-led restructuring of their debt last year. Some other companies sought leniency from creditors.
Ezra’s “creditors may take a haircut of up to 50 percent and bondholders may see some conversion to equity,” Joel Ng, an analyst at KGI Securities Pte. in Singapore, said by phone Monday. “The current situation is lot better than a few quarters ago.”
Ezra’s 20 largest creditors without collateral securing their claims are owed about $607.6 million as of Feb. 28, according to court papers. DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. are the two biggest creditors listed in the filing, with unsecured claims amounting to more than $457 million. The two Singapore lenders were also listed as the biggest creditors of secured debt, with more than $94 million in combined claims.