Allens Arthur Robinson (Allens) has acted for the security trustee and agent in the Alinta Finance restructuring, one of the most complex restructurings in Australian corporate history.
Allens acted for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in its role as the agent and CBA Corporate Services (NSW) Pty Limited as the security trustee on behalf of the syndicate lenders.
The matter concerned a restructure of a $2.8 billion debt facility through four creditors’ schemes of arrangement. This involved a debt-for-equity swap in respect of the secured debt, and a transfer of ownership of the companies in the Alinta Finance group to an entity controlled by the lenders.
Partner Vijay Cugati said that this restructure marked the first time that a scheme of arrangement had been used to effect a debt-for-equity restructure for many years.
‘As well as this, this matter is one of the largest restructurings of distressed debt in Australia and involved significant levels of trading of distressed debt between lenders,’ Mr Cugati said.
The Allens team, led by Partners Ian Wallace, Vijay Cugati, Mark Kidston, Diccon Loxton, Andrew Finch, John Warde and Michael Quinlan, included representation from the Banking & Finance, Corporate, Corporate Insolvency & Restructuring, and Tax groups.
Partner John Warde said: ‘We were delighted to have had the opportunity to act on behalf of the financier group on this large and complex transaction, which involved drawing on the specialist expertise of lawyers across several of our practice groups.’
Partner Ian Wallace said that the restructure had been a most extraordinary matter involving a rolling series of crises and challenges with a changing cast of clients.
‘The ultimately successful outcome is an enormous tribute to the dedication, creativity and professionalism of all parties and advisers on this transaction,’ Mr Wallace said.
Related Posts:
- None Found