Restructurings

Subscribe to Restructurings via RSS

The following post was originally included as part of our recently published memorandum “Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2024”.

As 2023 concludes, economic indicators remain mixed on whether there will be a recession or a soft landing over the next year.  Either way, it is likely that a significant number of companies, across industries, will need to restructure their financial debt and operations.  2023 brought a significant increase in chapter 11 filings, with a 61% percent increase compared to the same period in 2022, and filings across industries, including such notable companies as Bed Bath & Beyond, Envision Healthcare, Rite Aid and WeWork.  Other companies have avoided formal bankruptcy filings by undertaking liability management transactions that increase near-term liquidity through additional borrowings.  However, as several high profile filings this year have shown, it is likely that many of these transactions may simply delay, rather than prevent, bankruptcy filings in the future.Continue Reading One Step Ahead: Restructuring Considerations in an Uncertain Economic Climate

As 2024 gets off to a busy start, companies, boards and management teams are facing a host of new and developing business issues and a large array of regulatory developments, from new and growing risks and opportunities from the adoption of artificial intelligence, to ever-changing ESG issues and backlash, as well as enhanced focus on government enforcement and review. As has become a tradition, we have asked our colleagues from around our firm to boil down those issues in their fields that boards of directors and senior management of public companies will be facing in the coming year, yielding focused updates in eighteen topics that will surely feature at the top of board agendas throughout the year.Continue Reading Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2024

On December 7, 2021, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN) and the Free Democrats (FDP) concluded the coalition agreement for the 20th legislative period of the German Parliament (2021 until 2025), in which they announced, inter alia, their intention to amend the German corporate co-determination law and to extend the scope of application of the German One-Third Participation Act (Drittelbeteiligungsgesetz).
Continue Reading German Plans to Extend the Scope of Corporate Co-Determination Rights for Employees

On December 7, 2021, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN) and the Free Democrats (FDP) concluded the coalition agreement for the 20th legislative period of the German Parliament (2021 until 2025), in which they announced, inter alia, their intention to implement changes to corporate co-determination law to prevent the current practice seeking to avoid the applicability of corporate co-determination rights for employees by changing the company’s legal form into an SE (Societas Europaea).
Continue Reading German Reform Plans regarding Corporate Co-Determination for an SE

With effect as from January 1, 2023, the German Supply Chain Act dated July 16, 2021 (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten – Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz) will enter into force.

Undertakings of a particular size shall take responsibility for, and implement diligence standards with respect to, human rights-related and environmental risks in supply chains.  An undertaking which is subject to the German Supply Chain Act, but not in compliance with the requirements stipulated thereunder, may face significant sanctions.
Continue Reading Germany Strengthens Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains

In the latest turn in the long-running LBO-related fraudulent conveyance litigation brought in connection with the Lyondell bankruptcy,[1] on November 18, 2015, Judge Robert E. Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) issued a decision (the “Decision”) on motions to dismiss the intentional fraudulent transfer claims and the state-law constructive fraudulent transfer claims brought by representatives for shareholders of Lyondell Chemical Company (“Lyondell”) against Edward Weisfelner (the “Trustee”), trustee of two trusts established for Lyondell’s creditors.  In re Lyondell Chem. Co., No. 09-10023 (REG), 2015 WL 7272996 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Nov. 18, 2015).  The Decision dismissed the intentional fraudulent transfer claims based on the failure to adequately plead the Lyondell Board’s intent to defraud the company’s creditors by entering into the leveraged buyout.  However, the Court left in place the state-law constructive fraudulent transfer claims against former shareholders – notwithstanding securities safe harbors in the Bankruptcy Code that would generally preclude such claims – and, in the process, demarcated the boundaries between intentional and constructive fraudulent transfer claims.
Continue Reading SDNY Bankruptcy Court Reaffirms Rigorous Pleading Standards in Lyondell LBO Fraudulent Conveyance Action

The recent up-tick in covenant lite financings in the European leveraged loan markets has caused some in the investor community to express concern about what impact it will have when the debtor becomes distressed. This article examines the causes of the recent trend, and dispels some of the myths about covenant lite in the context of a restructuring.
Continue Reading The Resurgence of Covenant Lite, and What it Means for the Restructuring Market