Gulfport Energy entered into a third amended and restated credit agreement, which amends and refinances the company’s credit agreement dated as of May 17. A syndicate of 14 financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase Bank as administrative agent, provided the amended facility.
“Gulfport continues to make progress in strengthening its financial position, today announcing the successful amendment to its exit facility,” Tim Cutt, CEO of Gulfport Energy, said. “The amended facility increases our liquidity by more than $160 million, which is expected to provide us with the necessary financial flexibility to continue to execute our business plan and provides additional clarity around our ability to return capital to shareholders. We appreciate our banks working closely with us in connection with this amendment and for their continued support to our organization.”
The amendment provides for:
- An increase in aggregate elected lender commitments from $580 million to $700 million
- A repayment of the term loan under the exit facility
- A change to the leverage ratio covenant to permit a maximum ratio of net funded debt to EBITDA of no more than 3.25 to one as of the last day of each fiscal quarter of the company
- The ability to make certain restricted payments from free cash flow, subject to certain leverage and elected commitment availability conditions
- The elimination of the $40 million availability blocker that is applied in advance of certain successful midstream resolutions
- A revision of the applicable rate for all borrowings under the credit agreement, which reduces the 100-basis point LIBOR floor to zero and reduces the price grid by 25 basis points at each level of utilization
- The ability to repurchase outstanding senior notes of up to $150 million, subject to certain leverage and elected commitment availability conditions
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The amendment also provides for semiannual redeterminations of the borrowing base around Nov. 1 and May 1 of each year, beginning next year, and extends the maturity date to October 2025 from May 2024.
As of Sept. 30, Gulfport had approximately $4 million of cash and cash equivalents, $200 million of borrowings under its exit facility, $115 million of letters of credit outstanding and $550 million of outstanding 2026 senior notes.
Pro forma for the amendment, Gulfport’s liquidity at Sept. 30 totaled approximately $389 million, consisting of the $4 million of cash and cash equivalents and approximately $385 million of available borrowing capacity under its new revolving credit facility.
