The Old Notes were senior secured second-priority debt obligations guaranteed by GX Technology Corporation, ION Exploration Products (U.S.A.) Inc., I/O Marine Systems Inc. and GX Geoscience Corporation, S. de R.L. de C.V. (the "Guarantors"). As a result of the Restructuring Transactions on April 20, 2021 as further discussed in Footnote 1 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Old Notes Restructuring", $113.5 million in aggregate principal amount outstanding of Old Notes were tendered and exchanged for New Notes. At June 30, 2021, $7.1 million of Old Notes remain outstanding and are due along with unpaid interest on December 15, 2021.

The April 2016 indenture governing the Old Notes (the "Old Notes Indenture") contained certain covenants that, among other things, limited or prohibited ION Geophysical Corporation’s and its restricted subsidiaries from taking certain actions or permitting certain conditions to exist during the term of the Old Notes, including among other things, incurring additional indebtedness in excess of permitted indebtedness, creating liens, paying dividends and making other distributions in respect of ION Geophysical Corporation’s capital stock, redeeming ION Geophysical Corporation’s capital stock, making investments or certain other restricted payments, selling certain kinds of assets, entering into transactions with affiliates, and effecting mergers or consolidations. These and other restrictive covenants contained in the Old Notes Indenture are subject to certain exceptions and qualifications. All of ION Geophysical Corporation’s subsidiaries are currently restricted subsidiaries.

On April 20, 2021, the Company, the Guarantors, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, as trustee, and collateral agent, entered into a supplemental indenture (the “Supplemental Indenture”) to the Old Notes Indenture, dated as of April 28, 2016, among the Company, the Guarantors, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB (as successor to Wilmington Trust, National Association), as trustee, and U.S. Bank National Association, as collateral agent, governing the Old Notes Indenture. The Supplemental Indenture, among other things, provided for the release of the second priority security interest in the collateral securing the Old Notes, and deleted in their entirety substantially all of the restrictive covenants and certain events of default pertaining to the Old Notes. The Old Notes Indenture, as modified by the Supplemental Indenture, is materially less restrictive and affords significantly reduced protection to holders of such securities as compared to the restrictive covenants, events of default and other provisions previously contained in the Old Notes Indenture.

At June 30, 2021, the Company was in compliance with all of the covenants under the Old Notes.

New Notes

The $116.2 million aggregate principal amount outstanding New Notes are governed by the Indenture (the "New Notes Indenture") dated as of April 20, 2021, among the Company, certain of the Company’s subsidiaries, as Guarantors (as defined under Old Notes above), and UMB Bank, National Association, as trustee and collateral agent (the “New Notes Trustee”). The New Notes are senior secured second-priority debt obligations of the Company and will mature on December 15, 2025. The New Notes bear interest at a rate of 8.00% per annum. Interest on the New Notes will be payable on each June 15 and December 15, commencing on June 15, 2021. The New Notes will initially be guaranteed by each of ION’s material domestic subsidiaries and one subsidiary organized under the laws of Mexico (“Guarantors”). For further details, refer to Footnote 1 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Old Notes Restructuring."

The New Notes are senior obligations of ION; secured on a second-priority basis, equally and ratably with all obligations of ION under any future Parity Lien Debt (as defined in the New Notes Indenture), by Liens on all of the assets of ION other than the Excluded Assets, subject to the Liens securing ION’s obligations under the Credit Agreement (as defined under Revolving Credit Facility below) and any other Priority Lien Debt and other Permitted Prior Liens (as defined in the New Notes Indenture); are effectively junior to any Permitted Prior Liens, to the extent of the value of the assets of ION subject to those Permitted Prior Liens; are senior in right of payment to any future subordinated Indebtedness of ION, if any; are unconditionally guaranteed by the Guarantors; and are structurally subordinated to all existing and future Indebtedness (as defined in the New Notes Indenture), claims of holders of preferred stock and other liabilities of subsidiaries of ION that do not guarantee the New Notes.

Each guarantee of the New Notes are senior obligations of each Guarantor; secured on a second-priority basis, equally and ratably with all obligations of that Guarantor under any other future Parity Lien Debt, by Liens on all of the assets of that Guarantor other than the Excluded Assets, subject to the Liens securing that Guarantor’s guarantee of the Credit Agreement obligations and any other Priority Lien Debt and other Permitted Prior Liens; are effectively junior, to the extent of the value of the Collateral (as defined in the New Notes Indenture), to that Guarantor’s guarantee of the Credit Agreement and any other Priority Lien Debt, which are secured on a first-priority basis by the same assets of that Guarantor that secure the New Notes; are effectively junior to any Permitted Prior Liens, to the extent of the value of the assets of that Guarantor subject to those Permitted Prior Liens; and are senior in right of payment to any future subordinated Indebtedness of that Guarantor, if any.

The New Notes Indenture contains covenants that, among other things, limit the Company's ability, and the ability of ION's restricted subsidiaries, to incur additional debt or issue certain preferred stock; make certain investments or pay dividends or distributions on ION's capital stock, purchase or redeem or retire capital stock, or make other restricted payments; sell assets, including capital stock of ION's restricted subsidiaries; restrict dividends or other payments by restricted subsidiaries; create liens; create unrestricted subsidiaries; enter into transactions with affiliates; and merge or consolidate with another company. These covenants are subject to a number of important limitations and exceptions that are described in the New Notes Indenture.

At June 30, 2021, the Company was in compliance with all of the covenants under the New Notes.

Holders of New Notes may convert all or any portion of their New Notes at their option at any time prior to the close of business on the business day immediately preceding the maturity date. The conversion rate will initially be 333 shares of Common Stock per $1,000 principal amount of New Notes (equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $3.00 per share of Common Stock) and is subject to adjustment as described in the New Notes Indenture. Upon conversion of a New Note, ION will satisfy its conversion obligation by paying or delivering, as the case may be, cash, shares of its Common Stock or a combination of cash and Common Stock, at ION’s election. If ION satisfies its conversion obligation solely in cash or through payment and delivery, as the case may be, of a combination of cash and shares of its Common Stock, the amount of cash and shares of Common Stock, if any, due upon conversion will be based on a daily conversion value calculated on a proportionate basis for each trading day in a 30 trading day observation period. The total number of shares of Common Stock that may be issued upon conversion of the New Notes is 38.7 million shares, which excludes an additional 6.5 million shares that may be issued upon a conversion resulting from a make-whole change of control.

On or after the day that is the eighteen (18) month anniversary of the issue date of the New Notes (the “Issue Date”), ION may require the conversion of all or part of the New Notes, at its option, if Common Stock, as determined by ION, has a 20-day volume weighted average price of at least 175% of the conversion price then in effect ending on, and including, the trading day immediately preceding the date on which ION provides notice of conversion (an “Optional Conversion”). If ION undergoes an Optional Conversion prior to the third anniversary of the Issue Date, holders of New Notes will be entitled to a make-whole premium payment in cash equal to the applicable premium amount.

The New Notes will be redeemable, in whole or in part, at ION's option at any time prior to December 15, 2023, at a cash redemption price equal to 100.0% of the principal amount of New Notes to be redeemed plus a make-whole premium and accrued and unpaid interest. The New Notes will also be redeemable, in whole or in part, at the Company's option at any time on or after December 15, 2023, at a cash redemption price equal to 100.0% of the principal amount of New Notes to be redeemed plus accrued and unpaid interest.

If a Change of Control (as described in the New Notes Indenture) occurs, holders of the New Notes may require the Company to repurchase their New Notes at a cash repurchase price equal to 101% of the principal amount of the New Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest.

Upon certain asset sales, the Company may be required to use the net proceeds therefrom to purchase New Notes at an offer price in cash equal to 100% of the aggregate principal amount thereof, plus accrued and unpaid interest.

The Company issued one (1) shares of Series A Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Stock”) to the New Notes Trustee to (i) provide certain rights and protections to holders of the New Notes and (ii) allow, under certain circumstances, the holders of New Notes to vote on an as-converted basis. The New Notes Trustee shall take direction from holders of 50.1% of the New Notes for any action requiring the consent of the holder of the Series A Preferred Stock or each act on which the holder of the Series A Preferred Stock is entitled to vote.

Following a default or event of default under the New Notes Indenture, the Series A Preferred Stock will be entitled to vote with the Common Stock of the Company as a single class and having voting power equal to the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon the conversion of the New Notes. In addition, at all times when the Common Stock is entitled to vote, the Series A Preferred Stock will be entitled to vote with the Common Stock as a single class and having voting powers equal to the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon the conversion of the New Notes for any transaction (a) modifying, amending, supplementing, or waiving any provision of ION’s organizational documents or (b) entering into any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of ION’s assets, or other business combination transactions. The holder of the Series A Preferred Stock has the right to appoint two (2) directors to ION’s board of directors, both of whom must be independent. This holder exercised this right in June 2021.

The one share of Series A Preferred Stock (i) ranks pari passu in respect of voting rights with respect to Common Stock, (ii) has a liquidation preference equal to $1.00, (iii) will not produce preferred dividends or ordinary dividends, (iv) is not transferable, except to a successor New Notes Trustee under the terms of the New Notes Indenture, (v) is not convertible into any other class of equity of ION, and (vi) will not be granted registration rights. The Series A Preferred Stock may be redeemed by the Company upon the conversion into Common Stock, in the aggregate, of 75% or more of the New Notes. The redemption price will be $1.00.

On April 20, 2021, the Company and the Guarantors acknowledged and agreed to an intercreditor agreement (the “Intercreditor Agreement”) by and among PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC"), as first lien representative and collateral agent for the first lien secured parties, and UMB Bank, National Association, as second lien representative and collateral agent for the second lien secured parties. The Intercreditor Agreement, among other things, defines the relative priorities of the respective security interests in the collateral securing the New Notes and the obligations under the Company’s senior secured credit facility and certain other matters relating to the administration of security interests, exercise of remedies, certain bankruptcy-related provisions and other intercreditor matters.

The Intercreditor Agreement superseded and replaced the second lien intercreditor agreement, dated as of April 28, 2016, by and among PNC Bank, National Association, as first lien representative for the first lien secured parties and collateral agent for the first lien secured parties, and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, as second lien representative and collateral agent for the second lien secured parties and third lien representative for the third lien secured parties and U.S. Bank National Association, as collateral agent for the third lien secured parties.

On April 20, 2021, the Company issued New Notes in exchange for Old Notes (see detailed discussion above on both the New Notes and the Old Notes) . Due to the interest make-whole premium payable in cash associated with the Optional Conversion Feature of the New Notes (as described above in more details), the Company has determined that the Optional Conversion Feature is a derivative liability. Further, the interest make-whole premium is not clearly and closely related to the New Notes and is therefore considered a derivative liability (the Optional Conversion Feature and interest make-whole premium are referenced herein as "derivative financial instruments" or "derivatives"). The accounting treatment for derivative financial instruments requires that the Company record the fair value of the derivatives at inception and is adjusted for fair value changes at each reporting date. Considering the impact of other features in the New Notes, the fair value of these derivative instruments using the "with or without" scenario under a lattice option pricing model was determined to be zero over the life of the derivative financial instruments.

As discussed in more detail in Footnote 1 "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Old Notes Restructuring", on April 20, 2021, the Company successfully completed its offer to exchange the Old Notes for New Notes. As a result of these transactions, the Old Notes with a carrying value of $113.5 million were replaced with $84.7 million of New Notes issued at par and other consideration in the form of cash of $17.1 million and ION common stock of $15.7 million, including the early participation payment.

In accordance with ASC Topic No. 470, “Debt – Modifications and Extinguishments” (Topic 470), the transactions noted above were determined to be an extinguishment of the existing debt and an issuance of new debt. As a result, the Company recorded a loss on the extinguishment of debt in the amount of $4.7 million presented in "Other income (expense)" account in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. Of the $4.7 million loss on the extinguishment of debt, $4.0 million represents the 1.5 million shares the Company issued to the holders of the Old Notes as the early participation payment. The remaining $0.7 million represents the write-off of the remaining debt issuance costs related to the Old Notes.

On April 20, 2021, ION and its material U.S. subsidiaries — GX Technology Corporation, ION Exploration Products (U.S.A.) Inc. and I/O Marine Systems Inc. (the “Material U.S. Subsidiaries”) — along with GX Geoscience Corporation, S. de R.L. de C.V., a limited liability company (Sociedad de Responsibilidad Limitada de Capital Variable) organized under the laws of Mexico, and a subsidiary of the Company (the “Mexican Subsidiary”), (the Material U.S. Subsidiaries and the Mexican Subsidiary are collectively, the “Subsidiary Borrowers”, together with ION Geophysical Corporation are the “Borrowers”) — the financial institutions party thereto, as lenders, and PNC, as agent for the lenders, entered into that certain Fourth Amendment and Joinder to Revolving Credit and Security Agreement (the “Fourth Amendment”), amending the Revolving Credit and Security Agreement, dated as of August 22, 2014 (as previously amended by the First Amendment to Revolving Credit and Security Agreement, dated as of August 4, 2015, the Second Amendment to Revolving Credit and Security Agreement, dated as of April 28, 2016 and the Third Amendment to Revolving Credit and Security Agreement, dated as of August 16, 2018, the “Credit Agreement”). The Credit Agreement, as amended by the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Third Amendment and the Fourth Amendment is herein called the “Credit Facility”). The Credit Agreement, as amended by the Fourth Amendment, among other things, permitted the consummation of the Restructuring Transactions, including the issuance of the New Notes and certain cash payments to the Company's noteholders in connection with the Exchange Offer and the Rights Offering, and made certain other changes to the Credit Agreement’s definitions and other provisions, including with respect to LIBOR, where the successor LIBOR rate index will be the benchmark replacement determined by PNC. The Credit Facility is available to provide for the Borrowers’ general corporate needs, including working capital requirements, capital expenditures, surety deposits and acquisition financing.

The maximum interest rate in the Credit Facility is 3% per annum for domestic rate loans and 4% per annum for LIBOR rate loans with a minimum interest rate of 2% for domestic rate loans and 3% for LIBOR rate loans based on a leverage ratio for the preceding four-quarter period. The Credit Facility matures on August 16, 2023. The terms include a minimum excess borrowing availability threshold (excess borrowing availability less than $6.25 million for five consecutive days or $5.0 million on any given day), which (if the Borrowers have minimum excess borrowing availability below any such threshold) triggers the agent’s right to exercise dominion over cash and deposit accounts.

The maximum amount available under the Credit Facility is the lesser of $50.0 million or a monthly borrowing base. The borrowing base under the Credit Facility will increase or decrease monthly using a formula based on certain eligible receivables, eligible inventory and other amounts, including a percentage of the net orderly liquidation value of the Borrowers’ multi-client data library (not to exceed $28.5 million for the multi-client data library component). The borrowing base calculation includes the eligible billed receivables of the Mexican Subsidiary up to a maximum of $5.0 million. At June 30, 2021, there was $19.8 million outstanding indebtedness under the Credit Facility and the undrawn remaining borrowing base capacity was $6.1 million. To maintain the minimum excess borrowing availability threshold of $6.25 million (as described further above and below), the Company repaid $0.4 million of the outstanding indebtedness under the Credit Facility in July 2021.

The obligations of Borrowers under the Credit Facility are secured by a first-priority security interest in 100% of the stock of the Subsidiary Borrowers and 65% of the equity interest in ION International Holdings L.P., and by substantially all other assets of the Borrowers. However, the first-priority security interest in the other assets of the Mexican Subsidiary is capped to a maximum exposure of $5.0 million.

The Credit Facility contains covenants that, among other things, limit or prohibit the Borrowers, subject to certain exceptions and qualifications, from incurring additional indebtedness in excess of permitted indebtedness (including finance lease obligations), repurchasing equity, paying dividends or distributions, granting or incurring additional liens on the Borrowers’ properties, pledging shares of the Borrowers’ subsidiaries, entering into certain merger transactions, entering into transactions with the Company’s affiliates, making certain sales or other dispositions of the Borrowers’ assets, making certain investments, acquiring other businesses and entering into sale-leaseback transactions with respect to the Borrowers’ property. The Credit Facility contains customary event of default provisions (including a “change of control” event affecting ION Geophysical Corporation), the occurrence of which could lead to an acceleration of the Company's obligations under the Credit Facility.

The Credit Facility requires that the Borrowers maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of 1.1 to 1.0 as of the end of each fiscal quarter during the existence of a covenant testing trigger event. The fixed charge coverage ratio is defined as the ratio of (i) ION’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”), minus unfunded capital expenditures made during the relevant period, minus distributions (including tax distributions) and dividends made during the relevant period, minus cash taxes paid during the relevant period, to (ii) certain debt payments made during the relevant period. A covenant testing trigger event occurs upon (a) the occurrence and continuance of an event of default under the Credit Facility or (b) by a two-step process based on (i) a minimum excess borrowing availability threshold (excess borrowing availability less than $6.25 million for five consecutive business days or $5.0 million on any given business day), and (ii) the Borrowers’ unencumbered cash maintained in a PNC deposit account is less than the Borrowers’ then outstanding obligations.

At June 30, 2021, the Company was in compliance with all of the covenants under the Credit Facility.

A summary of future principal obligations under long-term debt and equipment capital lease obligations follows (in thousands):

⁽¹⁾While the outstanding balance of $19.8 million under the Credit Facility is shown as a current liability, the Credit Facility matures on August 16, 2023.