Investment bank Blackhill Partners completed the reorganization of RAAM Global Energy Co. through a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy in under 100 days, the bank said April 26. Blackhill Partners was a restructuring adviser.
RAAM is now known as Upstream Exploration LLC. It develops, produces and acquires oil and natural gas properties; RAAM had producing assets in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout 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, senior associate Brad Foxman and associate Reece O'Connor of law firm Vincent & Elkins were RAAM’s legal counsel.
Led by Jim Latimer, managing director, Blackhill Partners 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 was chief restructuring officer.
"RAAM has a good management team and good assets, but had a capital structure that was unsustainable with oil in the $30s," Latimer said.
"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."
Blackhill Partners LLC is based in Dallas.
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