Experience

• Selected Debtor and Sponsor Representations

  • Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, as co-sponsor of TriMark, with respect to TriMark’s 2020 “uptiering” transaction. Our team obtained dismissal of the nonparticipating lenders’ claims against Blackstone in New York state court litigation.
  • David’s Bridal in its successful prepackaged Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, under which David’s Bridal cut its debt by more than $400 million while preserving its business intact and ensuring that 80,000 pending customer orders and all trade claims would be satisfied without interruption.
  • Southcross Holdings in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Southcross Energy, L.P., a master limited partnership, of which Southcross Holdings is the majority equity owner and a key contract counterparty, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
  • High Ridge Brands, as special corporate, transactional and litigation counsel, in its Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, including in the sale of its business through a section 363 bankruptcy sale. Debevoise was awarded Distressed M&A Deal of the Year ($500MM to $1B) by The M&A Advisor at its 15th Annual Turnaround Awards for this representation.
  • Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, as private equity sponsor and significant holder of 2L debt for Healogics, in a successful out-of-court debt-for-equity restructuring that was stapled to a prepackaged bankruptcy filing.
  • Drive Devilbiss Healthcare, a portfolio company of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, in the opportunistic amendment of its 1L credit facility and conversion all of its $200+ million 1.5L credit facility to preferred equity.
  • Renfro Corporation, a leader in the design, manufacture, marketing and merchandising of legwear products, in exploring and implementing various balance sheet alternatives to address high leverage and liquidity impacts in light of COVID-19, including the closing of an incremental liquidity facility and material debt covenant amendments from existing ABL and term loan lenders.
  • Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Georgia-Pacific affiliate Bestwall in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
  • Altegrity, a global, diversified risk and information services company, together with its operating businesses Kroll, HireRight and USIS, in their pre-negotiated Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, in which they successfully restructured more than $1.8 billion in funded indebtedness and consensually resolved significant contested claims that had been asserted by the U.S. government. This restructuring was honored by Turnarounds & Workouts as one of ten Successful Restructurings – 2015.
  • TPG, as private equity sponsor with respect to strategic alternatives for its investment in Isola, later terminated, including a pending out-of-court restructuring.
  • Kelso & Company, the private equity sponsor of Logan’s Roadhouse, in Logan’s prearranged Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Debevoise also represented Kelso and Logan’s in a privately negotiated exchange offer to holders of Logan’s senior secured notes resulting in the issuance of over $220 million in new senior secured notes.
  • Big Apple Circus, as a pro bono client, with its Chapter 11 filing, which also included advising in the sale of the circus’s trademarks and other assets to an affiliate of merchant bank Compass Partners in time for the relaunch of the circus and many of its community programs in New York. Debevoise was named joint winner of “Consumer Discretionary Deal of the Year ($10MM to $25MM)” at the 12th Annual M&A Advisor Turnaround Awards for this representation.
  • Carlyle, together with its portfolio company Getty Images, in multiple capital-raising initiatives to complement and improve Getty Images’ existing debt structure and in exploring related balance sheet alternatives with respect to its approximately $3 billion in funded debt, followed by representing Carlyle in its successful exit from the investment in the form of an equity sale.
  • Chemtura Corporation, one of the largest publicly traded specialty chemical companies in the United States with more than 4,400 employees worldwide and 2010 revenue of $2.8 billion, in its heavily-contested Chapter 11 reorganization in the Southern District of New York.
  • TOUSA, a publicly traded homebuilder with substantial operations in Florida, the Mid-Atlantic, Texas and the West, and approximately 40 debtor and non-debtor affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases that restructured more than $2 billion in debt obligations, including obligations related to bank debt, senior and subordinated public bond debt, and complex land bank option and development contracts.
  • Allegheny Energy, a vertically integrated power generation and supply company, in the out-of-court restructuring and refinancing of more than $10 billion in bank, bond and other debt obligations.
  • Solutia and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases that restructured more than $3 billion of funded debt and other obligations, involving complex environmental, pension, litigation and indemnification issues.
  • MBIA, the parent company of insurer MBIA Corp., in matters associated with the restructuring of approximately $2 billion in parent-company obligations.
  • Hudson Clean Energy Partners in the out-of-court restructuring of portfolio company Solopower.
  • W.R. Grace & Co. and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases, in which section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code was used to address significant asbestos-related liabilities.
  • FINOVA Group and its affiliates in their restructuring of approximately $11 billion of debt, in which a complex financing transaction with Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National Corporation resulted in a confirmed Chapter 11 plan less than six months after filing.
  • FLAG Telecom Holdings Limited, a London-based worldwide telecommunications provider, in its U.S. and Bermuda insolvency proceedings, which restructured more than $3 billion of debt over a six-month period.
  • PlusFunds Group, a hedge fund manager for the S&P hedge fund index, in PlusFunds’ currently pending Chapter 11 case in the Southern District of New York.
  • American Pad & Paper Company, a Chapter 11 debtor that was one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of nationally branded and private-label paper-based office products in the North American office products industry.
  • Primary Health Systems, an integrated health care services company, in its Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession financing.
  • The Forgotten Woman, a national retailer of women’s clothing, in its Chapter 11 case in Delaware.
  • Graham-Field Health Products and its affiliates, suppliers of medical and home health care products, in their Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession financing.
  • Flying J and its affiliates, a fully integrated oil company with operations in the field of exploration, production, refining, transportation, wholesaling and retailing of petroleum products, in their Chapter 11 filing.

• Selected Creditor Representations

  • EIG Global Energy Partners and The Carlyle Group, together with their joint-venture affiliate Hamilton Holdings, in the joint venture’s acquisition of power producers Panda Patriot and Panda Liberty through the fully consensual out-of-court restructuring and conversion of the Panda borrowers’ debt to equity, in a complex workout transaction that also required the consensual refinancing of over $1 billion in the Panda borrowers’ funded senior debt with the proceeds of a new senior secured term loan, mezzanine debt and equity investments.
  • Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in the out-of-court recapitalization of its portfolio company, Drive Devilbiss Healthcare, including a new-money sponsor investment.
  • Gramercy Funds Management, as debtor-in-possession lender and one of the largest shareholders and creditors of Banro Corporation, a Canadian mining company with operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which successfully restructured under CCAA proceedings in Canada.
  • EIG Global Energy Partners, as sponsor, equity provider and DIP lender, in the Chapter 11 proceedings of midstream O&G company Southcross Holding LP in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that reduced over $610 million of funded debt by nearly 80% and provided $170 million of new money investments to ensure the long-term viability of the debtors’ enterprise, including their publicly traded master-limited partnership left outside of the filing.
  • Berkshire Hathaway, as secondary insurer under special revenue water and sewer bond obligations of the City of Detroit totaling $800 million, in Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
  • HarbourVest Partners, the largest co-investor in portfolio funds managed by Arcapita Bank B.S.C. and certain subsidiaries, in Arcapita’s complex cross-border insolvency cases in New York and the Cayman Islands. HarbourVest ultimately reached a consensual resolution related to the parties’ complex contractual co-investment arrangements and the appropriate Chapter 11 treatment and post-confirmation structure of the investment assets.
  • LG Electronics, in its capacity as largest unsecured creditor, in the consensual restructuring of Viking Range Corporation.
  • Trustees of the UK Pension Plan for hibu, as U.S. counsel, in the consensual restructuring of hibu's funded debt obligations in coordinated UK and U.S. insolvency proceedings.
  • Al Tawfeek Investment Company / Al Baraka, the largest foreign creditor on Unsecured Creditors’ Committee of Singer N.V., in Chapter 11 cases in New York, including counseling client regarding significant cross-border insolvency issues.
  • Halcyon Investments in its significant claim holdings in the Bonneville Pacific Chapter 11 case.
  • Infront Media, the largest unsecured creditor, in holding a claim of $250 million in contract rejection damages, in the DIRECTV Latin America Chapter 11 cases.

• Selected Cross-Border Representations

  • Petroleum Equity in acquiring the operating assets of ATP’s non-debtor UK subsidiary, gaining sale approval in the U.S. Chapter 11 cases of ATP's U.S. parent and the follow-on successful CVA proceedings of ATP UK.
  • Belgian subsidiary of Solutia in a first-of-its-kind restructuring that used an obscure Belgian Companies Code provision to allow changes in maturity date, collateral package and interest rate for Solutia’s €200 million in Eurobonds, all out of court and with less than 100% bondholder approval.
  • OSX Leasing, a member of the EBX family of companies, in the multinational cross-border restructuring of more than $2 billion of funded debt.
  • The Singer Company, and its unsecured Saudi and Turkish bank creditors in obtaining full recovery (including interest and expenses) on their unsecured debt, based on a legal theory combining Turkish law and Islamic sharia with established U.S. Chapter 11 principles.
  • FLAG Telecom Holdings Limited in developing a restructuring strategy by which it completed a streamlined six-month reorganization of its worldwide operations (including in-court and out-of-court restructurings of affiliates headquartered in Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and throughout Europe) using insolvency proceedings in the United States and Bermuda.
  • Sea Containers Limited and more than 100 debtor and non-debtor affiliates in their global restructuring that combined formal U.S. and Bermuda insolvency proceedings with numerous out-of-court asset sales, workouts and other restructuring activities for Sea Containers’ worldwide subsidiaries.

• Selected Distressed M&A Representations

  • Gogo, the leading inflight Internet company, in the successful sale of its commercial aviation business to Intelsat, which was in Chapter 11 at the time of the transaction.
  • Standard General as debtor-in-possession lender and successful stalking horse bidder, in the 2015 Chapter 11 case of RadioShack Corporation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
  • Crown Resorts, one of Australia’s largest gaming and resort operators, and Elan Holdings in the distressed acquisition of a controlling interest in a 34.6-acre site formerly occupied by the New Frontier casino on Las Vegas Boulevard.
  • Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in its successful purchase of substantially all of the U.S. assets of Chapter 15 debtor A.B.C. Learning Centers Limited.
  • Chemtura Corporation in the sale of its PVC Additives business in a multi-bidder auction process under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.
  • TOUSA in structuring and implementing the sale of substantially all of its assets in multiple multi-bidder bankruptcy auction processes under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.
  • American Pad & Paper Company in the auction sales of four operating divisions.
  • FINOVA Capital Corp. in the sale of a $350 million loan portfolio.
  • Saks Fifth Avenue as potential acquiror of debtor Barney’s, Inc.
  • Louisiana Generating in its successful bid to acquire debtor Cajun Electric Power Cooperative.

• Selected Bankruptcy Litigation Representations

  • McKinsey & Company in multiple bankruptcy proceedings and a civil RICO action relating to its disclosures as debtor advisor.
  • The Mortimer Sackler family group, former directors and shareholders of Purdue Pharma, Inc. and related entities, in prescription opioid litigation in various fora across the country and in the bankruptcy of Purdue Pharma, Inc., filed in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court.
  • La Paloma Generating Company, a California-based power producer, in its $524 million Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, a plan for which was successfully confirmed following a disputed confirmation hearing.
  • Standard General in its highly publicized distressed investment in clothing manufacturer and distributor American Apparel. Debevoise also represented Standard General in American Apparel’s pre-arranged Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and in its subsequent case filed in 2017.
  • HarbourVest Partners, a significant creditor in the contentious Chapter 11 case of investment fund Highland Capital, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, in reaching and defending over objections a favorable resolution of HarbourVest’s litigation claims against the debtors.