Report: More than 100 North American Oil and Gas Producers Have Filed for Bankruptcy since 2015
Report: More than 100 North American Oil and Gas Producers Have Filed for Bankruptcy since 2015
ABI Bankruptcy Brief
ABI Bankruptcy Brief
December 29, 2016
Bankruptcy Brief
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Report: More than 100 North American Oil and Gas Producers Have Filed for Bankruptcy since 2015
Since the beginning of 2015, 114 North American oil and gas producers have filed for bankruptcy, involving approximately $74.2 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt, according to Haynes and Boone's latest Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor. As of Dec. 14, 70 producers have filed bankruptcy so far this year, representing approximately $56.8 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt, according to the report. Texas bankruptcy courts remain the leaders in venue, both in terms of the number of E&P filings and cumulative debt. Fifty-one E&P bankruptcies have been filed in Texas, representing approximately $32.5 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt.
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Commentary: Trump’s Financial Deregulation Might Be Bad News for Banks After All
Bank stocks have surged since the election on hopes that President-elect Donald Trump will roll back financial rules. But deregulation, for the biggest institutions at least, might come with a catch: tougher limits on borrowing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Some influential voices in Trump’s world insist banks should, as a quid pro quo for rolling back some regulations, maintain higher capital — shareholders’ funds that act as a cushion against losses but can also curb profits. Trump’s picks of two former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives to run his economic team — Gary Cohn, to head the National Economic Council, and Steven Mnuchin, for Treasury secretary — might give Wall Street a powerful voice at the policy table. But at least two candidates for the job of Federal Reserve vice chairman in charge of bank oversight, arguably the single-most powerful bank regulatory position in the world, are supporters of tougher capital rules. So is House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who will next year be at the center of reshaping the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law.
Analysis: Record Run for Company-Bond Sales Seen Coming to a 2017 Halt
After six straight years of growing U.S. investment-grade corporate-debt sales, bankers and investors are pegging 2017 as the year the frenzy finally fades, according to a Bloomberg News analysis yesterday. Interest rates have risen to two-year highs, making borrowing more costly, and the pipeline for new-acquisition financing is smaller than 2016’s, according the the analysis. Uncertainty around potential tax reform and trade wars in a Trump administration may also sideline more issuers. “That all points to supply being down, year over year,” said Dan Mead, head of the U.S. investment-grade syndicate desk at Bank of America Corp. A 10-20 percent drop in new bond sales next year, as some strategists have predicted, would still leave gross volumes above $1 trillion, as they’ve been since 2012. Investment-grade companies sold $1.35 trillion of bonds in 2016, a 2 percent increase from the 2015 record. Blue-chip companies worldwide sold more than $2.1 trillion of debt this year, a slight decrease from 2015 levels.
Legal "Crowdsourcing" Service Draws Attention of State Bar Associations
Legal Services Link, a "crowdsourcing" online service that connects those needing legal services with lawyers willing to render them, is beginning to draw attention from state bar associations across the country, according to a report today in the New York Times. The site has 700 lawyers, many in the Chicago area, who pay $250 a year to be listed with their areas of expertise. Clients post summaries of their legal disputes, list their geographic location and select a payment preference. The choices are hourly, fixed fee or contingency, which is a portion of whatever is recovered in a successful lawsuit. State bar associations have so many requests for lawyer aid that some are seeking to move beyond offering lawyer referral lists and considering online platforms. The State Bar of Arizona, for example, is exploring such technology, citing a huge demand for lawyers in situations like closing the sale of a house, fighting for child custody or pursuing redress for an injury.
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