History
Red Mountain grew from a shell into an oil and gas group through share-funded deals, then leaned on a bank loan, selling half of some assets in 2015 before deregistering.
2011: Building a portfolio
In March 2011 Red Mountain described itself as an oil and gas company still in the acquisition stage, with no revenue or production. It had signed a contract for Permian Basin properties, made an offer for Gulf Coast properties from a receivership, and planned to spend up to $25 million that year, raised through a private placement at $1.00 a share.
The main step came on June 22, 2011, when it issued 27,000,000 shares for all of Black Rock Capital. Black Rock became the accounting acquirer, so its history became Red Mountain's. StoneStreet Group, linked to Alan Barksdale, received 18,000,000 shares, and 225,000,000 shares held by the former controlling shareholder were retired. The company gained Madera assets in Lea County, New Mexico, Gulf Coast acreage in Texas, and about 13.3% of Cross Border Resources.
Over the rest of the year it added the Martin and Shafter Lake leases and the Cowden mineral interests, which came with 31 producing wells. It paid for much of this with new shares. The private placement closed in November having raised $16,206,000, short of the $25 million ceiling. It also borrowed: a senior secured note of up to $4,000,000 from the Belzberg parties and Caddo Management, and $2,750,000 of 10% convertible notes. Meanwhile it swapped its own shares for Cross Border shares, reaching 23.1% by October.
2012: Big deals that fell away
In May 2012 Red Mountain agreed to buy Swan PC, LP for about $235.0 million, far larger than anything before it. The filing did not say how it would be financed, and the company ended the agreement on June 30 using its right to terminate at any time, with no material penalties. In July it agreed to buy drilling rigs and related assets out of a bankruptcy, paying largely in shares and debentures. That deal was ended by agreement in October, and the $250,000 deposit was returned. The debenture exchanges for shares continued regardless.
The steady thread was Cross Border. Through repeated share-for-share swaps, Red Mountain's stake rose to about 46.7% by the end of December, with further agreements pending. In December the Belzberg note was raised to $6,000,000, and the company agreed to buy Bamco Gas receivership assets; Barksdale was the Bamco receiver.
2013-2014: Control, bank debt and a reverse split
On January 28, 2013 Red Mountain bought more Cross Border shares for 10,182,420 of its own, taking its stake to about 77.9% and bringing Cross Border into its accounts. On February 5 it signed a credit agreement with Independent Bank, and used the proceeds to repay the First State Bank of Lonoke notes and the $6.0 million Belzberg note. It also accepted subscriptions for 7,058,823 shares at $0.85 for $6,000,000.
The bank loan came with covenants, and the first breach, a current-ratio test at May 31, 2013, was waived in September, when the borrowing base rose to $30 million. In August 2013 the company offered a Series A preferred share, treated as debt and redeemable in 2018.
Effective January 31, 2014, it combined every 10 shares into one, taking about 134.0 million shares to about 13.4 million, and moved its incorporation from Florida to Texas. In April 2014 it exchanged 222,224 preferred shares for 1,388,898 common shares, leaving 254,463 preferred outstanding. In August 2014 it announced a planned further preferred offering, and the record does not show the outcome. The first Kansas well was dry, out of a planned seven, while net production was about 109.2 MBoe for the June 2014 quarter.
2015: Selling half and stepping back
Covenant waivers kept coming. In March 2015 the bank waived a September 2014 current-ratio failure and cut the borrowing base to $27.8 million. On April 21, 2015 Red Mountain sold 50% of its interest in certain oil and gas assets to Black Shale Minerals for $25.0 million, planning to use the cash to repay part of the loan, pay receivables and for working capital. The same day the bank cut the base to $12.4 million.
On November 13, 2015 the company filed a fifth amendment to the loan, effective June 30, 2015. It kept the base at $12.4 million, set monthly commitment reductions of $125,000, and waived the December 2014 current-ratio failure and overdue payables at December 2014 and March 2015. The facility matures February 5, 2016. The same day, Red Mountain deregistered its securities, ending its obligation to file reports with the SEC. How much of the sale proceeds repaid the loan was not stated.
Written from the 34 story beats below (2011 to 13 Nov 2015), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.