Bellatrix Exploration (BXEFF) has ended up restructuring only six months after it announced its recapitalization transaction. While that transaction pushed out its note maturities until 2023, it still left Bellatrix with an unsustainable amount of leverage. Restructuring was therefore inevitable without a significant improvement in natural gas prices, but I am a bit surprised that it happened this quickly.
The challenge for Bellatrix was that although AECO prices had improved somewhat, the AECO forward strip still remained significantly below what Bellatrix needed to be in decent financial shape. As well, weaker