Our Legal Insights Blog

On July 22nd, Aston Martin raised £450m of new senior secured debt from funds managed by HPS. A noteholder group holding more than half of the roughly $1.8bn-equivalent of notes had previously organized under a cooperation agreement, advised by Akin Gump. Then, on July 21st, a bondholder letter sent through Quinn Emanuel demanded the company stop the transaction within 48 hours; the company announced the financing as closed the next day.

Victoria plc has been refinancing its €166.6 million 3.75% senior secured notes due March 2028. Three announcements between July 8th and 23rd changed what a holder who refused it would receive.

PitchBook reports private credit lenders negotiating ownership structures at origination - stacked holding companies above the borrower - so a future debt-for-equity conversion can run through a top-layer foreclosure and a clean sale below it. Cheap to ask for and easy to miss on review; the mechanics and the review points are inside.

Six years after the 2020 exchange, the Serta Simmons uptier has a price. The current fight is over whether the market gets to read the itemized version.

The Serta Simmons litigation produced its most consequential document-level ruling on July 7th, and the number that came out the other end - $400m and change - is worth the attention of anyone who structures or advises on leveraged loans.

I've watched Payments for Consent disappear from the levfin covenant package for years, and I'll admit it broke my heart a little - deal by deal, it was like watching a slow car crash. So the recent New York ruling in the Hunkemöller uptier made my day because I saw the covenant I once loved doing its job.

Arxada's creditors had leverage because the transaction had to come through them - they extended, and they priced that consent. First Brands is the other end of it. Nobody had to ask the lenders for anything.

The sacred rule of restructuring, that everyone in the same class gets the same pro rata treatment, effectively broke in Europe last year. The surprise is who broke it. It was not a sponsor. It was the creditors. That was the scene-setter from Ash Tehrani, Senior Counsel at Akin in London, on this week's Knowledge Series episode. Read his take on the market, three years into the LME revolution that's reshaped market dynamics for good.