ATP Oil & Gas Increases Term Financing to $155 Million

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (ATPG), one of the first oil explorers to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, increased the size of a loan it’s seeking for general corporate purposes to $155 million from $140 million, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The debt, due in January 2015, will pay interest at 7.25 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate, down from 7.5 percentage points, said the person, who declined to be identified because the terms are private. The minimum on the benchmark will remain unchanged at 1.5 percent. Libor, the rate at which banks say they can borrow in dollars from each other, serves as a reference for about $360 trillion of financial instruments worldwide.

ATP is proposing to sell the debt at 99 cents on the dollar, the person said, reducing proceeds for the company and boosting the yield to investors.

Credit Suisse Group AG is arranging the financing for the Houston-based company and commitments were due today at 3 p.m. in New York, the person said.

The company is also converting its existing $208 million fixed-rate term loan into floating-rate with the same conditions as the new loan, the person said.

Albert Reese, chief financial officer of ATP, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

In a revolving credit facility, money can be borrowed again once it’s repaid; in a term loan, it can’t.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Amato in New York at mamato3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net