Blackhill Partners, an investment bank specializing in complex situations, has completed the reorganization of RAAM Global Energy Company, guiding the company through a pre-negotiated chapter 11 bankruptcy in under 100 days. RAAM engaged Blackhill Partners as a restructuring advisor and chief restructuring officer for the financial and operational reorganization.
Led by Managing Director Jim Latimer, the Blackhill Partners team managed cash, reduced expenses, and consolidated operations. Blackhill guided a sale process and managed the transfer of RAAM's onshore and offshore assets to the senior secured lender. Latimer served as Chief Restructuring Officer for the period leading up to the filing through plan confirmation.
"RAAM has a good management team and good assets, but had a capital structure that was unsustainable with oil in the $30's," said Latimer. "Blackhill's job was to help make and implement the tough decisions swiftly and then develop a plan of reorganization that everyone could accept. This minimized costs and enabled them to emerge as a stronger, leaner organization. RAAM benefited from the Blackhill team's broad industry knowledge and specific experience in energy restructurings, which enabled us to complete the reorganization in reasonably short order."
RAAM was a Delaware corporation with public debt and is now known as Upstream Exploration LLC, engaged in the exploration, development, production, exploitation and acquisition of oil and natural gas properties. The company's producing assets were located offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and California. Other members of the Blackhill team serving RAAM included Joe Stone, Managing Director, Joel Brown, Vice President, and Matt Denny, Associate. Harry Perrin, Partner of law firm Vinson & Elkins, assisted by Senior Associate Brad Foxman and Associate Reece O'Connor, served as counsel to RAAM.
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Blackhill Partners, LLC is an investment bank specializing in complex situations. Blackhill's professionals have advised Fortune 500 and middle-market companies on over $100 billion of mergers, acquisitions, financings and restructurings across a broad range of industries, with particular depth in energy and industrial businesses.