As foretold by that woman in Delphi.*
Or London.
Or Davos.
Or wherever oracles hang out.
From the Financial Times:
Bondholders’ plan to swap debt for new equity will help insulate company from worst effects of price swings
The air has leaked from Party City’s balloons, in more ways than one. Filing for bankruptcy this month, Party City cited the usual factors troubling US retailers such as higher expenses for freight and labour. But the purveyor of banners and festive paper plates has a unique challenge: commodity risk.
Party City is best known for its helium balloons and the price of the gas has jumped. Worse, the company’s overall total debt load of $1.8bn far exceeds its current profitability. A plan by Party City’s bondholders to swap their debt for new equity will repair its balance sheet and help to insulate it from the worst effects of helium price swings.
A series of supply shocks in 2022 among suppliers in Russia, Qatar and the US has sent prices of helium — a byproduct of natural gas production — skyrocketing. Helium production in the US in part comes from the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management. Its facility in Texas was shut for months in 2022, which only added to the mayhem in the helium market. The US government selling price for helium in 2022 at one point neared $600 per thousand cubic feet, more than double the price in 2019....
The Blind Spot takes a closer look at the epic fallout in the helium and neon market, where prices were already being squeezed due to a failure in the strategic US reserve before Putin invaded. $$ Paywall https://t.co/pRlRjNBYpv
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) March 10, 2022
There’s a major crisis brewing in the noble gas markets - specifically in neon and helium - and it will have a meaningful impact on critical industries from semiconductors to defence and aerospace. Here’s my deep dive ($$) into what’s going on: https://t.co/lOZNvcGLDH
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) May 1, 2022
Neon too. The joy is going out of our lives.
I used to say "that's funnier than three helium atoms: HeHeHe" No more
Last seen in December 2021's ""The Race to Find ‘Green’ Helium" (figure it out, make yourself a billionaire)"
