Cobalt International Energy, Inc. Commences Chapter 11 Cases to Facilitate Restructuring $CIE

Announced this morning:

Cobalt International Energy, Inc. today announced that it and certain of its U.S. affiliates filed voluntary petitions for relief under chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the "Chapter 11 Cases"). Cobalt expects to conduct business in the ordinary course, and its cash on hand is expected to provide Cobalt with adequate liquidity to fund its operations during the restructuring process. The Chapter 11 Cases are expected to facilitate the restructuring process and the proposed sale of Cobalt’s assets.

That went from the distressed debt watch to bankrupt pretty quickly. Here is the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas docket for the case.

From the first day motions, a comment on timing:

To potentially avoid these significant capital expenditures and mitigate the risk that they lose any of their leases, the Debtors seek to complete the final, in-court stage of their marketing efforts and obtain approval of a sale of their assets by no later than Friday, March 23, 2018. [pdf]

Effective December 14, 2017, the Company's common stock is expected to begin trading on the OTC Pink marketplace under the symbol "CIEI".

The 2019 debt has been trading today at 10-11 cents.