Calgary, Alberta – Bonavista Energy Corporation (TSX: BNP) (“Bonavista” or the “Company“) has worked extensively over the past twelve months in an effort to realign its near term debt maturities and maintain adequate liquidity to continue ordinary course operations in extraordinary market conditions. As part of these efforts, Bonavista issued a draw request for $175 million available under its existing $500 million bank credit facility (the “Facility“) with a syndicate of eight Canadian banks consisting of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (“CIBC“), The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, The Bank of Nova Scotia, National Bank of Canada, Alberta Treasury Branches and Caisse Centrale Desjardins (the “Banking Syndicate“).
Notwithstanding Bonavista’s belief that the draw down conditions under the Facility were met, CIBC (the administrative agent) advised Bonavista that the draw request would not be honoured by the Banking Syndicate.
Bonavista is currently in discussions with our creditors to provide a facility to meet its operating liquidity requirements over the next several months, while concurrently we continue to create a path forward to reorganize our near term debt maturities. Bonavista’s capital budget announced on February 13th, 2020 has contemplated only modest maintenance capital spending over the next few months. All measures mentioned above are intended to provide us with liquidity, sustainability and the stability required to navigate the recent and unprecedented global market challenges.