Restructuring and Insolvency

Notable Deals

• We represented Plastipak Holdings, a US packaging company, in the acquisition of the PET Division of La Seda de Barcelona (“LSB”), a Spanish listed company which, together with its European subsidiaries, had filed for Insolvency at Barcelona Commercial Court. The acquisition, for an amount of €230 million, involved assets in 12 different jurisdictions.
• We acted on the restructuring and subsequent administration of the Circle Oil Group of companies. This involved a COMI shift to the UK and the restructuring of $50 million secured debt.  Fieldfisher advised the companies and the administrators in respect of assets and debts spread across the UK, Morocco and Egypt, dealing with oil and gas exploration licences with the governments of those countries.
• The team acted for the administrators of Redx Pharma Plc, an AIM listed pharma company, in a ground-breaking corporate rescue. This saw Redx return from administration to the control of its directors and its shares were re-listed on AIM. Redx operated in the highly specialised pharmaceuticals sector and traded whilst in administration, raising a number of complex issues which were highly unusual in the context of an administration.
• We assisted UWV (Employee Insurance Agency; an autonomous administrative authority commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to implement employee insurances and provide labour market and data services), a regular client of the firm, at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. The issue concerned the ranking of claims by the governmental client in the insolvency of a Dutch company, and we successfully obtained a judgment that the claims ranked as a super-priority, behind only the liquidator's own fees.
• We acted for a global manufacturer, which acquired a company that had entered into a facilities agreement with ISDA Master Agreement terms with Landsbanki. A dispute had arisen as to whether the original transactions were terminated after Landsbanki went into administration, which was made more difficult because in December 2015 Landsbanki came out of administration and it claims that the transactions were merely suspended as a result.