Natural Gas Pioneer Puts Investment Vehicle Into Bankruptcy

livemint.com:

An investment vehicle owned by U.S. natural-gas entrepreneur Charif Souki has filed for bankruptcy and is suing its lenders to prevent foreclosure of its assets, including shares of a family-owned business and a luxury ranch. Strudel Holdings said it sought protection from creditors Thursday so it can sell those assets “in an orderly manner at fair market value rather than having them disposed of in the commercially unreasonable manner." Strudel, along with its bankrupt affiliate AVR AH, and Souki, also filed a lawsuit Thursday, accusing investment manager UBS O’Connor, administrative agent Wilmington Trust and lenders including Nineteen77 Capital Solutions of breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing.

Souki founded Cheniere Energy, the first exporter of liquefied natural gas in the contiguous U.S. He was ousted from his job as CEO in 2015 after Carl Icahn and other activist investors raised concerns about his pay and other executive practices. Souki then founded Tellurian, a Texas-based natural gas operator, in 2016 in his second venture to export natural gas.

In its lawsuit, Strudel said it believes the lenders have acted unreasonably after it defaulted on loans, which at one point reached more than $100 million. Strudel, AVR and Souki had pledged certain assets as collateral in support of the loans, including the 813-acre Aspen Valley Ranch in Colorado, owned by AVR, and shares of another family business, commercial real estate company Ajax Holdings. The lenders seized Souki’s sailboat, the Tango, last December and sold it for less than it was worth after making only nominal repairs, the lawsuit said.