Sanjel Corporation

Sanjel Corporation is a specialized, privately owned global energy service company.
Background
It was founded in 1982 by Don MacDonald, the company’s chairman. Sanjel filed for CCAA protection and chapter 15 bankruptcy on April 4, 2016. Canadian assets were sold to STEP energy and US assets sold to Liberty oil. Sanjel employed approximately 2200 people and had nine office locations operating in five countries.
His son, Darin MacDonald, is the company’s president and chief executive, having worked at the business for 23 years. The two have equal financial control over the family’s holdings, which include energy businesses, real estate assets and capital and technology units. The Company's large-scale, international operations stretch across North America and overseas. Sanjel has team members in over 28 operating locations, eleven laboratories, ten regional maintenance facilities and seven driver training centers.
The creditors had also signalled their intention to go after Sanjel’s landlord, which is owned by Sanjel’s shareholders, to recoup some of the US$300 million they say they are owed. But the creditors attempt to block the sale was denied in court on Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the case.
The bondholders had claimed that if the sale to STEP and Liberty were approved, “There will be nothing left to restructure.”
Out of concern that bondholders would not be repaid, U.S. investment firms Ascribe Capital LLC’s and Clearlake Capital Group LP’s had attempted to the stop the sale of Calgary-based Sanjel’s fracking business to Calgary-based STEP Energy Services Ltd. and Liberty Oilfield Service.
Ascribe Capital’s chief investment officer and managing director Lawrence First said in an affidavit that, after the fracker missed a US$11-million interest payment on Dec. 11, his firm and Clearlake made multiple offers to restructure Sanjel’s debt by sending over new term sheets.
Instead of accepting the offers or negotiating the terms, First said Sanjel and its banking syndicate postponed meetings with bondholders and appointed a debt monitor without the bondholders’ knowledge over the course of the winter. Meetings were postponed until the sale was announced in April.
The bondholders’ motion also demanded that Sanjel’s former CEO Darin MacDonald, son of founder Don MacDonald, swear an affidavit describing payments paid by Sanjel, which is owned by the MacDonald family, to a company called MacBain Properties Ltd.
Alberta government records show Calgary-based MacBain Properties is also owned by the MacDonald family, and court proceedings show that Sanjel’s rent and other payments make up 90 per cent of MacBain’s income.
Sanjel provides two specialized product offerings - pressure pumping and completions. Each is complete with its own engineering products and custom-designed and manufactured equipment.
A preliminary prospectus the company issued in 2014 indicated that it would generate $1.5-billion (Canadian) in its fiscal 2014 year, making it third-largest in its industry. It has become an important provider of hydraulic fracturing services as the North American energy industry has tapped increasing volumes of oil and gas trapped in shale formations.
Its largest customers include SM Energy Co., Continental Resources Inc., Bonavista Energy Corp., Newfield Exploration Co., Husky Energy Inc. and Encana Corp. Its top 10 customers account for about 65 per cent of company revenue. Its customer list features Canadian and American companies who are developing shale resources.
In April 2016, Sanjel filed for protection from creditors in Canada under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (with PricewaterhouseCoopers as monitor) and filed Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States.
In May 2016, Privately held STEP Energy Services Ltd., an ARC Financial Corp. sponsored company, acquired the Canadian pressure pumping, coiled tubing and cementing assets of Sanjel Corporation.
In May 2016, Liberty Oilfield Services, acquired the USA pressure pumping, coiled tubing and cementing assets of Sanjel Corporation.
In June of 2016 , Sanjel Energy Services began operating the Canadian cementing business in place of Sanjel Corporation, still as an Arc Financial sponsored company with new CEO Shane Hooker.

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