Transocean Plan to Avoid Bankruptcy May Cause One Just the Same
- Creditors cry foul over debt swap designed to ease burden
- They say Transocean pledged assets already promised to them
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Measures taken by Transocean Ltd. to stave off a bankruptcy filing could be exactly what ends up sending the offshore drilling company into Chapter 11 alongside some of its biggest peers.
The world’s largest owner of deep-water oil rigs recently engineered a bond swap to trim some of its $9 billion debt load and ease the crunch caused by slumping energy prices. But other creditors, led by Whitebox Advisors LLC and Pacific Investment Management Co., say the transaction amounts to a default because it pledges assets that Transocean already promised to them.