Breitburn Energy kicked off Nasdaq, to begin trading on OTC market

Breitburn says there is no assurance that its securities will continue to trade on OTC Pink Sheets

breitburnLOS ANGELES, Calif. – Breitburn Energy Partners LP announced that it has been suspended by NASDAQ as of Wednesday and its securities are expected to begin trading on the OTC Pink Sheets under the symbol “BBEPQ” for its common units and “BBEPP” for its Series A Cumulative Perpetual Preferred units.

Breitburn filed for bankruptcy protection on May 16. The company says it secured $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing that, with cash on hand and from operations, would fund its operations during the bankruptcy process, according to Reuters.

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Breitburn says that it does not intend to file a plan to regain compliance or to appeal NASDAQ’s determination.

Breitburn statement:

Despite the transition of Breitburn’s common units and Series A units to the OTC Pink Sheets, there is no assurance that either security will continue to trade on the OTC Pink Sheets, that any public market for Breitburn’s common units or Series A units will exist in the future or that Breitburn will be able to relist its common units or Series A units on any national securities exchange.

In addition, there is no assurance that any broker-dealer will continue to agree to provide public quotes of Breitburn’s common units or Series A preferred units or whether the trading volume of either security will be sufficient to provide for an efficient trading market.

“Recent asset sales have been terrible and that’s why you’re seeing this wave of restructuring of debt rather than sales,” said Deborah Williamson, a Dykema restructuring attorney in San Antonio told Reuters.

“Creditors seem to be leaning toward a restructuring process that exchanges debt for new equity ownership and waiting out a recovery in oil prices.”

Few struggling energy companies have been able to find buyers, although there was a rare exception on Monday as Range Resources Corp said it will buy fellow natural gas producer Memorial Resource Development Corp for about $3.3 billion in stock.

With files from Reuters.