Senior lenders recover $1.2B in a cross-border bankruptcy
The Client — An ad-hoc group of senior secured creditors holding a $1.2 billion first-lien position in a multinational issuer with operating entities in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Situation — The issuer filed parallel Chapter 11 and Part 26A scheme proceedings on overlapping records. A junior-led restructuring proposal threatened to reallocate value across the capital structure and dilute the senior class's recovery.
The Challenge — The two regimes apply different priority rules, different cramdown standards, and different fairness tests. A divergent strategy between the US and UK forums would have given the debtor the room to forum-shop and pressure the senior group into a compromise.
What We Did — The team coordinated a single, cross-border valuation case anchored to the same expert testimony in both courts. Confirmation in the US and sanction in the UK proceeded on overlapping records, with the same financial witnesses, the same exhibits, and the same theory of distributable value.
The Results — Both courts approved the senior group's amended plan structure. The first-lien class received cash and reorganized equity worth par-plus consideration, and the contested junior treatment was modified to address fiduciary objections raised at sanction.
“We were a dozen institutions with different mandates. Verdict aligned us behind one valuation, two courts, and a single recovery. That kind of discipline is rare in restructuring.”
