International legal advice to lenders, borrowers, corporates, insolvency practitioners and other stakeholders.

Our Restructuring and Insolvency team comprises dedicated lawyers in the UK, France, Germany and Spain, together with finance, corporate, real estate, tax, pensions, employment and litigation lawyers specialising in restructuring and insolvency law. 

All our offices embrace the sector expertise of our real estate, retail & leisure, telecoms, technology, life sciences and media practice groups. Our cross practice approach allows us to provide in depth commercial insight to clients seeking financial and operational restructuring advice. Our lawyers are at the forefront of the latest developments in their fields, often being involved in high profile cases of media interest.

We advise institutional lenders and borrowers, corporates, insolvency practitioners and other stakeholders on a broad range of restructuring and insolvency matters including large complex pan-European restructurings, solvent reconstructions, distressed debt trading, insolvency sales and acquisitions, employment rights and TUPE transfer analysis, pension clearance, landlord and tenant contingency planning, antecedent transactions and misfeasance claims together with general (contentious and non-contentious) insolvency issues.

Our Real Estate Special Situations Group ("RESS") is a market leading team in large, high profile commercial real estate restructuring.  We are a leader in pensions restructuring, having set up the first dedicated pensions restructuring practice, our Pensions Restructuring Special Situations Group ("PReSS").  We are also one of the very rare experts in the specialist area of restructuring NHS and Foundation Trusts Hospitals.

Some examples of our work are set out below, although often our involvement in the most topical cases must for reasons of sensitivity remain confidential.

Real Estate

• Advised the senior lenders and subsequently the administrators, Grant Thornton LLP, on the restructuring, enforcement and sale of over £200 million loans secured on the Sapphire Retail Fund portfolio of shopping centres in the UK.
• Acted for clients of F&C REIT Asset Management on the acquisition and restructuring of the financing of approximately 220 properties from the administrators and administrative receivers of the Dawnay Day group for over £600 million.
• Acted for clients of Delancey Real Estate Asset Management on the acquisition of an interest in the limited partnership owning the Castlepoint Shopping Centre in Bournemouth and on the acquisition of 40 Holborn Viaduct, London, where we advised on financing and tax structuring issues.  Our finance team advised on the debt funding secured to finance the acquisitions.
• Advised Capital & Regional Plc on the restructuring of its core banking facilities, totalling over £175 million. 
• Acted for an SPV deep discount buyer of a junior tranche of a £98 million facility relating to a property portfolio.
• Advised a £150 million property portfolio group with professional securities market listed debt on a restructuring with its bondholders.
• Acted as Joint Judicial Administrator of Nozar, a Spanish real estate investment company with debts of €700 million.
• Acted as Joint Judicial Administrator of Cosmani, a Spanish real estate company. We provided restructuring advice to the company, which had debts of €700 million.
• Joint Judicial Administrator of Estudio 5, a major Spanish real estate company. We provided restructuring advice to the company, which had debts of €500 million.
• Provided restructuring advice to a Spanish real estate company with debts of €150 million.
• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf in respect of the former Middlesex Hospital development site, the biggest single mixed use development site in London's West End.
• Advised Minerva plc on the refinancing of loan facilities in excess of £750 million in respect of two of the City of London's largest office developments in The Walbrook Building and St Botolph Building in Houndsditch.
• Advised a Danish bank on the enforcement of its security interests in the insolvency of a German developer of residential properties including the rebuttal of the alleged subordination of the bank's debt.
• Represented a German specialist real estate lender in connection with the restructuring of a £117 million facility to finance an office development in the City of London, including the documentation of the restructuring (both in London and athis German headquarters) during all its credit approval stages.
• Advised LBB Landesbank Berlin AG on the repositioning of a large inner-city building complex financed by the bank following the insolvency of the borrowers.
• Advised sub-groups of lenders to both Crest Nicholson and McCarthy & Stone in connection with their schemes of arrangement.  This involved supporting banks in connection with the complex aspects involved in the UK driven restructuring process.
• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf on restructuring its €142 million debt facility to Invista and Propinvest's Celsius portfolio of French properties. 
• Advised the business support unit of a UK clearing bank in its capacity as lender in connection with the restructuring of a £54.25 million facility for the acquisition and development of an industrial and distribution site in Scotland.
• Acted for the landlord in the landmark decision of Goldacre (Offices) Ltd v Nortel Networks UK Ltd (in administration)[2009] EWHC 3389 (Ch) (requiring administrators to pay full rent as and when it fell due as an expense of the administration when using or retaining premises for the purposes of the administration).

Retail & Leisure

• Advised the security trustee on the restructuring of £355 million facilities to a specialist fund with a portfolio of over 25 hotels across the UK, including advice on a debt/equity swap and restructuring of management and operations.
• Advised Hull City Association Football Club (Tigers) Limited on its financial restructuring and sale to Allamhouse Limited.
• Advised the business support unit of a UK bank in its capacity as senior lender/agent in connection with its restructuring of a £75 million facility to a vehicle investing in landmark hotels in the UK and providing enforcement and insolvency procedures advice.

Media

• Acted for BBC Worldwide in proceedings brought by the administrators of the Woolworths group. This was a high profile dispute concerning the takeover by BBCW of the video/DVD joint venture, 2 entertain Ltd, and in particular whether the anti-deprivation rule could be applied to significantly increase the price payable for Woolworths' shares.  We were successful in defending the claim at first instance in the Companies Court and then by a unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal in November 2009, setting an important principle in the field of insolvency law.
• Advised Toshiba and Fujitsu on their rights in respect of patents and licenses in connection with the insolvency of a large German semi-conductor producer Qimonda.
• Advised a global film distributor in relation to the insolvency of its German DVD manufacturer, complicated by the challenging structure of the DVD manufacturers' group, which included numerous insolvent entities. 
• Advised Better Capital LLP in relation to the purchase of the business and assets of Reader's Digest Association and Reader's Digest Financial Services for £13 million.  The deal helped to secure the future of the business which went into administration in February 2010 as a result of significant UK pension liabilities.
• Advised CBS Corp., Paramount Pictures Corp., Dreamworks and MTV Networks in relation to the insolvency of the KirchMedia Group, the largest post-war insolvency in Germany.  We represented a number of US clients to safeguard their assets and interests in the KirchMedia estate, including the negotiation settlements.
• Acted for Powercorp International Limited, the largest TV production company in Europe, in relation to its debt restructuring and sale of the business.

Life Sciences

• Acted for a borrower in the natural consumer healthcare sector on the implementation of a scheme of arrangement which involved the de-listing of the parent company as well as the substitution of a new listed holding company, the amendment and restatement of existing asset-based lending facilities and the restructuring of the group. 
• Advised a group of funds (£25 million unsecured mezzanine loan note holders) in relation to a 3,000 bed care management group including advice on a debt for equity swap effected through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with landlord future rentals haircut since emulated in JJB Sports and others. 
• Advised Milton Keynes NHS Foundation Trust, a £155 million turnover, 2,500 employee NHS FT, in relation to its financial difficulties, including directors' duties and cash collateral working capital facilities.
• Advised Heatherwood & Wexham Park NHS Foundation Trust,a £285 million turnover, 3,000 employee NHS FT hospital in relation to its financial difficulties generally, including directors' duties, governance, Foundation Trust Financing Facilities (FTFF) and "protected property" issues.

Financial Services

• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf on the legal aspects of closing out and settling their derivatives portfolio, including negotiations with over 100 of the Bank's international financial institution counterparties (including most of the major names in investment banking) and litigation in cases which have not proved capable of settlement.
• Advised one of the world's largest hedge fund managers on its investment into a complex joint venture structure involving the complete restructuring of the joint venture and the retranching of the existing debt including a partial refinancing and a partial waiver of debt.
• Acted for Liberty (quoted on Euronext) in its acquisition of The Pearl Group of insurance companies and the financial restructuring of the target.  This was a very complex financial restructuring and involved detailed analysis and input into a post-acquisition restructuring process involving, amongst other things, complex debt/equity swap and debt conversion issues.
• Acted for a number of clients in closing out their derivatives and recovering their assets following the insolvency of Lehmans.
• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf on an asset swap agreement involving a complex arrangement undoing a loan asset participation agreement in respect of a portfolio of UK and Icelandic loans.

General Restructuring & Insolvency

• Advised the administrators, BDO LLP, and DKLL Solicitors on the first court approved sale of the business and assets of a law firm.
• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf on the restructuring of Huurre Group Oy, North Europe's leading commercial refrigeration company, including a debt for equity swap.
• Advised Hilco in relation to its proposed acquisition of a division of an 8,000 employee logistics provider with a £1 billion turnover and more than 200 sites. 
• Advised Composite Technology Corporation, a United States listed global group and producer of wind turbines, energy efficient and other renewable energy products, in relation to its European reorganisation and Court of Appeal victory in leading European decision on cross border jurisdiction.
• Advised OP Systèmes, a clean tech company based in the South-West of France and operating in France and in Italy, on a corporate and debt restructuring involving a pool of commercial banks and TOTAL, one of its main clients, with injection of €15 million additional financing.
• Advised a French pharmaceutical company, as creditor of Lehman Brothers Treasury BV, as issuer, and Lehman Brothers inc., as guarantor, in the Dutch and the US bankruptcy proceedings of these companies, in relation to a €20 million investment in Lehman structured bonds.
• Advised New Star Asset Management on a financial restructuring with its lending syndicate and on the £115 million public offer for it announced by Henderson Group plc on 30 January 2009.
• Advised Venture Photography Group, a European, US and Asian international photography group, in relation to its financial turnaround post administration generally, including improvements in its franchise security, recovery and franchisee issues.
• Advised a well known non-departmental government body and charity in relation to the duties and liabilities of its members, trustees and directors arising from its funding uncertainty and subsequent restructuring.
• Advised Kaupthing Bank hf in relation to a multi-jurisdictional pet food group headquartered in Finland in connection with a complex restructuring which involved the lender acquiring full ownership of the group.
• Successfully defended a director in a major High Court dispute on guarantee/warranty claims resulting in a leading decision as to the delivery of deeds:Bibby Financial Services Ltd and another v Magson and others[2011] EWHC 2495 (QB).