Westmoreland Coal Company – Cancels Auction and Designates Entity Comprised of Prepetition Lenders as the Successful Bidder

January 21, 2019 – The Debtors notified the Court [Docket No. 1112] hearing the Westmoreland Coal Company case that further to Court approved bidding procedures [Docket No. 519], and having not received any qualified bids other than that of the stalking horse bidder (the “Stalking Horse Bidder”), it had cancelled the auction scheduled for January 22, 2019 and designated the WLB Debtors as the Successful Bidder. The Stalking Horse Bidder is an entity formed on behalf of holders of the Debtors’ pre-petition secured notes due 2022 and prepetition secured term loans due 2020 for the purpose of credit bidding on the Debtors’ assets and was approved as the stalking horse bidder in November 2018 [Docket No. 519]. 

The Debtors notice states, “Except for the Stalking Horse Bid, no Qualified Bids were received for the WLB Debtors’ Core Assets assets before the Bid Deadline. Accordingly, the WLB Debtors hereby cancel the Auction with respect to the Core Assets pursuant to the Bidding Procedures Order.”

The notice further states that “the WLB Debtors received several bids for the Buckingham Mine, which is a Non-Core Asset. The WLB Debtors intend to seek approval of a sale of the Buckingham Mine pursuant to procedures separate from those set forth in the Bidding Procedures Order….The WLB Debtors [also] received bids for certain of the Non-Core Assets other than the Buckingham Mine. While those bids were not Qualified Bids, the WLB Debtors intend to continue to evaluate such bids, in consultation with the Consultation Parties….because no other Qualified Bid was received, the WLB Debtors have selected the Stalking Horse Bid as the Successful Bid for the Core Assets and the Non-Core Assets except for the Buckingham Mine; provided that the WLB Debtors may decide to enter into a sale of the (non-Buckingham) Non-Core Assets to a bidder other than the Stalking Horse Bidder, which the WLB Debtors will announce by separate notice filed with the Court.”