Despite a $10.0 million loan through the federal government aimed at helping companies through the COVID-19 crisis, Rhino Resource Partners LP joined a long list of U.S. coal companies filing for bankruptcy reorganization after succumbing to persistently weak markets for the fuel.
Rhino entered bankruptcy July 22 through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio with approximately $162.1 million of liabilities, including $39.8 million in secured debt owed to its pre-bankruptcy lenders. Court filings show the company is in "urgent need of liquidity" after exhausting a $10.0 million Paycheck Protection Program loan.
According to a request to tap into new financing provided by the company's pre-petition lenders, Rhino's subsidiaries "lack the financial wherewithal to fund their operations."
"The North American coal industry is intensely competitive, and over the past several years, market forces in the industry have affected a number of coal companies, many of which have filed for Chapter 11," the filing said. "While the metallurgical coal market has been favorable over the past 24 months, general distress affecting the domestic U.S. thermal coal industry has produced a sustained low price environment. In addition, coal mining requires a high level of capital expenditure to sustain production and to maintain safety requirements."
The Paycheck Protection Program loan came with a two-year term and bears an interest rate of 1.000% per annum. It includes provisions forgiving the loan in whole or part based on the use of proceeds for payroll costs and mortgage interest, rent or utility costs, and the maintenance of employee staffing levels and compensation levels. Rhino has submitted documentation seeking forgiveness of the loan.
Rhino has underground and surface mines in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Utah along with some assets in West Virginia. The company produces thermal coal for power generation and metallurgical coal used in steelmaking. Rhino employs approximately 547 employees and controls an estimated 277.6 million tons of proven and probable coal reserves consisting of an estimated 171.1 million tons of steam coal and 106.5 million tons of metallurgical coal.
Rhino increased coal production from 2.9 million tons in 2017 to 3.2 million tons in 2019, but revenues have decreased and exacerbated liquidity issues. The company recorded a net loss of $16 million in 2018 and the loss of another $99 million in 2019, bankruptcy filings show. The liquidity crunch has led to the company triggering financial covenant and other defaults of its financing agreement.
The coronavirus pandemic has compounded the struggles of Rhino and the broader coal sector, which already has suffered from a structural decline in domestic demand and, recently, lower export demand.
"Prior to the petition date, the debtors were required to idle operations for an extended period of time at many of their mining operations to protect their employees from exposure to COVID-19," Rhino told the court. "Despite their efforts to reduce operating costs, however, given the current low coal prices, the debtors are simply unable to repay their liabilities."
Rhino secured an $11.8 million debtor in possession, or DIP, term loan facility from its pre-petition lenders after receiving no actionable interest from prospective lenders despite contacting 19 parties for third-party financing. The DIP loan is expected to enable the company to start an "expeditious but orderly sale and marketing process" for substantially all of its assets, Rhino told the court.
The loan will allow the company to restructure and will be used for employee wages and benefits and to fund other parts of the company's operations.
"[T]he debtors' depressed operating performance and persistent weakness in coal markets substantially limited the debtors' options for postpetition financing of the size necessary to fund these Chapter 11 cases, particularly with the development of COVID-19," said a declaration from Thomas Fairfield, who is serving as a chief restructuring officer for Rhino and has been consulting for the company since July 2018 through Cambio Group LLC. "The debtors need an immediate capital infusion to operate their business postpetition and to fund these Chapter 11 cases."
The loan includes $3.5 million on an interim basis and $8.25 million on a final basis.
"The DIP facility, which provides the cash needed to stabilize the debtors during the process of the expedited marketing and sale of the debtors' assets, represents the only and best postpetition financing the debtors could obtain," said the motion for court authorization to accept the financing.
Royal Energy Resources Inc. acquired majority ownership of Rhino and 100% ownership of Rhino's general partner through a series of transactions in 2016.