On July 10, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York granted interim approval of an $802 million debtor in possession financing facility for Patriot Coal Corporation and 98 of its subsidiaries, which filed for bankruptcy protection on July 9. The Debtors are a leading producer and marketer of coal in the United States, with operations and coal reserves in the Appalachia and Illinois Basic coal regions.
The DIP financing includes “First Out” new money revolving credit and term loan facilities for which Bank of America is a joint lead arranger, and a “Second Out” letter of credit facility, consisting of a roll up of obligations under a prepetition credit agreement agented by Bank of America. A team led by partner Margot Schonholtz represented Bank of America as prepetition agent, as a joint lead arranger of the First Out DIP financing, and as the agent under the Second Out DIP facility. The team also includes partners Ana Alfonso and Jeffrey Goldfarb and associates Penelope Jensen, Sean Zoltek, Adam Feit, Marina Zelinsky, Andrew Schwartz and Charlie Tricomi.
