Fracking company Sanjel Corp sells itself to private-equity backed STEP Energy Services

CALGARY C A sizable, privately held hydraulic fracturing clients are being split up and sold while also applying for court-ordered defense against its creditors.

Sanjel Corp., a pressure pumper which had at some point grown its annual revenues to $1.5 billion, announced its sale to a different locally based company STEP Energy Services Ltd. and Denver-based Liberty Oilfield Services on Monday afternoon.

At the same time frame, Sanjel announced it had entered into court-ordered defense against its creditors and the Court of Queen’s Bench had appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. to oversee the sale from the company’s assets.

Though private, Sanjel is among the larger fracking companies headquartered in Calgary and also at some point employed 3,300 people. The company didn’t immediately return requests for discuss Monday. The acquirer, STEP, declined to supply a amount for that purchase of Sanjel’s Canadian assets.

“Despite Sanjel’s proactive method of expense management and aligning our operations to current levels of marketing activity, it is increasingly hard for us to maintain a strong balance sheet,” company president and CEO Darin MacDonald said inside a letter to employees. The company did not immediately react to a request comment.

STEP, the consumer, can also be privately owned but backed by Calgary-based private equity firm ARC Financial Corp. and it has been buying up fracking companies opportunistically.

Last April, STEP bought another Calgary-based distressed hydraulic fracturing company in CCAA proceedings, Gasfrac Energy Services Inc.

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