Royal Helium going into court-monitored sales process

By COLLIN GALLANT on February 20, 2025.

@CollinGallant

The matter of Royal Helium is back in Alberta and headed toward a court-monitored sales process to clear up debts and potentially continue operations of the niche exploration company with holdings in southeast Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.

The Court of King’s Bench hearing in Edmonton on Wednesday approved a transfer of the file from Superior Court of Ontario and into a court-creditors protection process.

That could lead to a sales process of the company’s assets in whole or in part by early May, court heard.

“It provides the flexibility to begin a sales and solicitation process that could likely result in cross-border transaction,” said lawyer Gabrielle Schacher. “The applicants are confident that it will result in a value-maximizing transaction that benefits all stakeholder parties involved.”

Justice Douglas R. Mah approved the application that puts national business advisory firm Alvarez and Marshall in charge of the file. It also consolidates Ontario files regarding Royals’ two subsidiaries and begins a sales process that would tentatively see binding offers submitted by April 18 and potentially approved in court by May 9.

The company applied for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency act in Toronto in January, claiming a liquidity crisis and failure to commission the Steveville processing plant north of Brooks over the course of a year.

Canada Western Bank and the Business Development Bank of Canada are each owed more than $8 million as secured creditors.

Now, they will take over interim financing of the company during the reorganization from initial lender, Energy & Specialty Gases, LLC, and expand the facility to $2.5 million during the sales process.

That Texas-based firm was mentioned as a potential stalking horse bid candidate during proceedings in Ontario court.

Alberta court heard Wednesday that commissioning of the Steveville production facility failed after former managers chose to part ways with the engineering firm that designed it, instead bringing the work in-house.

New management took over Royal in the fall, and major lenders are generally satisfied in their efforts.

“They (debtors and company) have worked very hard in a short amount of time and accomplished quite a bit, in my estimation,” stated David LeGeyt, a lawyer with Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, counsel to the new monitor Alvarez and Marshall.

Court heard that a sales process could open immediately with a solicitation of interest for the company, which holds exploration rights to more than one million acres of land in Saskatchewan, near Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta and the County of Forty Mile.

Binding offers would be accepted on April 19, a potential auction could be held April 23 toward court approval of a sale in early May and potential closing date of May 9.

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