Ultra Petroleum entered a backstop purchase agreement with its backstop parties to support a rights offering of reorganized UP Energy common stock for eligible holders of allowed first-lien term loan claims, with the priority rights offering sized at up to $85 million, according to the company’s SEC 8-K. The agreement gives backstop parties a 7.5% put option premium, payable in new common stock on the plan effective date, subject to bankruptcy court approval.

The filing matters because Ultra’s May 2020 case was already moving under a prearranged plan, and this agreement supplies a committed equity-financing mechanism for the plan’s capital structure rather than leaving the rights offering fully market-dependent. The agreement also carries a practical outside date: either the debtors or requisite backstop parties can terminate if closing has not occurred by November 3, 2020, making confirmation timing and court approval of the backstop economics central items for first-lien lenders and other plan constituencies to track.