Seitel Negotiating Amended Reorganization Plan
30 Dezembro 2003 - 3:59PM
PR Newswire (US)
Seitel Negotiating Amended Reorganization Plan HOUSTON, Dec. 30
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Seitel, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: SEIEQ)
("Seitel" or the "Company") announced today that it is negotiating
with the Official Committee of Equity Security Holders appointed in
the Seitel Bankruptcy Case to file an amended plan of
reorganization. If a definitive agreement is reached, the Company
expects to file an amended plan and a related amended disclosure
statement on or about January 14, 2004. The Bankruptcy Court has
tentatively scheduled a hearing with respect to approval of the
Company's amended disclosure statement on January 30, 2004. It is
currently contemplated that under the proposed amended plan,
Seitel's pre-petition creditors would be paid in full in cash with
post- petition interest. It is also intended that the amended plan
of reorganization would provide each of Seitel's equity holders, as
of a record date anticipated to be the effective date of the
amended plan, the right to maintain its percentage equity ownership
in Seitel (subject to dilution as set forth below) through the
exercise of warrants to be issued to such equity holders. It is
presently contemplated that the warrants would have an exercise
price of $.60 per share, subject to adjustment in the event of a
recapitalization of Seitel's common stock. The Company anticipates
that the warrants will be exercisable by equity holders for a
period of 30 days following Seitel's emergence from Chapter 11. If
all such warrants were to be exercised in full, Seitel would
receive $75 million in new equity capital. Equity holders who do
not exercise their warrants will suffer approximately 84% dilution
in their percentage equity ownership of Seitel. Mellon HBV
Alternative Strategies LLC ("Mellon") has agreed, subject to
execution of a definitive commitment letter, to act as a standby
purchaser for up to the entire $75 million of common stock to the
extent any such warrants are not exercised by equity holders.
Mellon presently holds approximately 8% of Seitel's common stock.
If Mellon were to exercise its standby purchase commitment for all
$75 million of common stock, it would own approximately 84% of the
common stock of reorganized Seitel. For acting as the standby
purchaser, Mellon would be issued an option to acquire up to an
additional 10% of the fully diluted shares of common stock of
reorganized Seitel, after giving effect to the exercise of the
warrants. The exercise price of the option is presently anticipated
to be $.72 per share, subject to adjustment in the event of a
recapitalization of Seitel's common stock. Fred S. Zeidman,
Chairman of Seitel, noted that to provide the remaining funding of
the amended plan, Seitel has been in discussions with debt
financing sources who, without any commitment, have expressed
confidence in their ability to raise $180 million of high yield
debt financing. In addition, Seitel will use a portion of its cash
on hand and also intends to seek senior debt exit facility
financing to supplement its working capital following its emergence
from Chapter 11. Terms of the agreement are subject to approval by
the Company's Board of Directors, and all of the proposed terms
discussed above are subject to the execution of definitive
documentation and such Board approval. Any amended plan will be
subject to a vote by Seitel's equity holders and approval by the
Bankruptcy Court. There can be no assurance that the Company will
file any such amended plan containing the terms set forth above or
that, if filed, such plan will be confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court
or become effective. This press release does not constitute an
offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities
of the Company. The securities may not be offered or sold in the
United States absent registration under the Securities Act of 1933,
as amended (the "Securities Act"), or an applicable exemption from
such registration. There shall not be any sale of these securities
in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would
be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the
securities laws of any such jurisdiction. ABOUT SEITEL Seitel
markets its proprietary seismic information/technology to more than
400 petroleum companies, licensing data from its library and
creating new seismic surveys under multi-client projects.
Statements in this release about the future outlook related to
Seitel involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may
cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from
expected results. While the Company believes its forecasting
assumptions are reasonable, there are factors that are hard to
predict and influenced by economic and other conditions that are
beyond the Company's control. Among the other important factors
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in
the forward-looking statements are potential changes in the terms
of the proposed amended plan of reorganization, the failure of the
Company's Board of Directors to approve such terms, the failure of
the Company to file an amended plan of reorganization, the failure
of the Bankruptcy Court to confirm the amended plan, or the failure
of the amended plan to otherwise become effective, as well as other
factors detailed in Seitel's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its most recent Form 10-K Annual
Report, a copy of which may be obtained from the Company without
charge. DATASOURCE: Seitel, Inc. CONTACT: Seitel, Inc.,
+1-713-881-8900 Web site: http://www.seitel-inc.com/
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