23 April 2024
Bens Creek Group
plc
("Bens Creek", the "Company" or
the "Group")
Update on the Group's Chapter
11 cases
Further to the Company's announcement
released on 15 April 2024 (the "Previous
Announcement"), Bens Creek Group plc
(AIM:BEN), the owner of a metallurgical coal mine in North America
supplying the steel industry, announces that further
filings have been lodged with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of West Virginia (the "Court") following the commencement of
the Chapter 11 process outlined in the Previous Announcement (the
"Chapter 11 Process").
As is usual in Chapter 11 cases, the Chapter 11
Companies have entered into a term sheet for a debtor-in-possession
financing ("DIP") facility.
Avani, the Company's largest shareholder, has filed a DIP term
sheet with the Court for up to $14.5 million (the "Avani DIP Facility"). The Avani DIP Facility
term sheet is now binding on Avani but is not binding on the
Chapter 11 Companies until the Court binds the Chapter 11
Companies.
A Court hearing to consider the Avani DIP
Facility is now expected to be held by the end of April 2024 (the
"Court
Hearing").
Between now and the Court Hearing, other
alternative DIP financing facilities can be put forward to the
Court and the Court will, at the Court Hearing, consider the most
appropriate DIP facility for the Chapter 11 Companies. The Court
will require a DIP facility to be in place before it approves the
Chapter 11 Process. There can be no guarantee that the Avani DIP
Facility will be approved by the Court.
Should the Court approve the Chapter
11 Companies entering into the Avani DIP Facility this will
constitute a related party transaction pursuant to Rule 13 of the
AIM Rules for Companies and a further announcement will be made in
this regard at the appropriate time.
Filings lodged at the Court can be accessed
here: https://ecf.wvsb.uscourts.gov/
.
Capitalised terms not defined in this
announcement shall have the meaning given to them in the Previous
Announcement unless the context otherwise demands.
Further announcements will be made at
the appropriate time.
For
further information please contact:
Bens
Creek Group plc +44
(0) 204 558 2300
Adam Wilson, CEO
Peter Shea, Chief of Staff
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint
Broker)
+44 (0) 203
328 5656
Nick Athanas / Nick Naylor / George Payne (Corporate Finance)
Kelly Gardiner / Guy McDougall (Sales and Corporate
Broking)
WH
Ireland Limited (Joint Broker)
Harry Ansell / Katy Mitchell
+44
(0) 207 220 1666