Aegean Marine Petroleum Network has found peace with its creditors and an even better deal from Mercuria Energy Group.
In court papers filed over the weekend, the now-bankrupt bunkering giant wants to move forward with a plan that will see the company restructured and unsecured creditors getting at least $40m.
The new plan has the support of formerly dissident bondholders, who signed on to a restructuring support agreement that awaits the court's approval.
"The (agreement) enables the parties to avoid months of highly contentious, potentially value destructive litigation in favor of global peace," the motion filed in US District Court for Southern New York read.
Per the filing, Aegean had come to an agreement with the bondholders "on the courthouse steps" earlier this month, just before Oaktree Capital Management and Hartree Partners swooped in with their own bid.
That bid — judged to be better than the stalking horse sale Mercuria had originally proposed — saw Aegean reorganized, $30m paid to unsecured creditors plus three-quarters of proceeds recouped from litigation over the alleged $300m fraud disclosed earlier this year.
Mercurica came back with the current bid. The Swiss commodities trader not only upped the base amount that creditors would receive, but proposed awarding them all the fraud proceeds. Further, Mercuria will get all the equity in the reorganized company.
A hearing on the new deal will be held 15 January. The two sides hope to complete the reorganisation by May.
Bondholders were previously concerned that Mercuria's first $532m offer was really a way to acquire Aegean at a bargain price.
A representative for the bondholders, arguing in a declaration filed late November said the $300m in alleged fraud was potentially Aegean's most valuable asset.
According to the company, up to $300m of its assets had been funneled to OilTank Engineering & Consulting, a company said to be controlled by an unnamed former affiliate, as part of a 2010 deal to build an oil terminal in Fujairah.
Included in that figure is $200m in accounts receivable that had to be written off earlier this year. Auditors said those transactions were with shell companies, designed to obscure misappropriations to OilTank.
The alleged fraud was said to have been carried out by more than a dozen Aegean employees, some of whom carried it out under threat of physical violence or economic retaliation at the hands of the unnamed affiliate.
