National Retail Supplier Declares Bankruptcy

Glacial Energy Holdings, and various retail supplier and other subsidiaries, have filed a Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy.

Included in the Chapter 11 petition are Glacial Energy Holdings, the various Glacial retail supplier subsidiaries, Gridway Energy Holdings, Inc., Negawatt Business Solutions, Inc., and Ziphany, L.L.C.

The bankruptcy was prompted by Glacial's default on various agreements with EDF Trading North America, LLC and Vantage Commodities Financial Services I, LLC. The Glacial companies, EDF Trading North America, and Vantage have entered into a settlement regarding the bankruptcy process.

Subject to court approval, Vantage Commodities Financial Services I, LLC will provide the Glacial companies with $122 million in debtor-in-possession financing, which will allow the Glacial companies to pursue a "value maximizing sale of substantially all of their assets."

Vantage Commodities Financial Services I is a stalking horse bidder for the Glacial companies' assets.

The Glacial companies said that the post-petition financing will allow them to, "maintain crucial business relationships with their customers by continuing to perform under contracts for the retail sale of electricity or natural gas ... [and] to continue to perform under certain contracts with utility providers and transportation and distribution service providers."

Glacial listed liabilities of more than $1 billion, with assets of $500 million to $1 billion.

As of February 28, 2014, Glacial's existing book of customers is comprised of approximately 200,000 electric residential customer equivalents and 55,000 gas residential customer equivalents across the U.S. A large portion of these customers' energy consumption and revenue is generated in the northeast U.S., Ohio, Illinois, and Texas (which collectively account for 80+% of revenue), with the remaining portion coming from California and other states.

The filings were made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, 14-bk-10833 et. al.