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Chapter 11 Plans

Understanding the Right to Credit Bid After Radlax [Editor’s Note: this is part of our irregular series in which we answer readers’ questions. If you have a question, submit it to [email protected] and we will try to answer it.] Question A private equity investor wrote in recently asking us to address credit bidding in the aftermath of Radlax. Answer For investors who are unfamiliar with the concept, the right to credit bid is the “right of the secured creditor under the Bankruptcy Code to use its secured claim against a […]

An Introduction to the Distressed Company’s Superman: The Chief Restructuring Officer The role of a Chief Restructuring Officer (“CRO”) is approximately four decades old. While still a somewhat new role in the 1990s, CROs are now ubiquitous in the restructuring community. Todd Zywicki, a George Mason law professor who specializes in bankruptcy law, traces the origin of the CRO to the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 (the “1978 Act”). The 1978 Act created “a unified reorganization chapter [chapter 11] that is fundamentally grounded in the presumption that pre-bankruptcy management will […]

The ABCs of ABCs, Business Bankruptcy, & Corporate Restructuring/Insolvency In the last two installments of this series, we introduced you to things a company should consider before deciding whether to file chapter 11, and a timeline for understanding how a “typical” chapter 11 case proceeds. In this quick little ditty, we want to make sure you understand four concepts that permeate every chapter 11 case except, perhaps, a prepack. 1. The Automatic Stay When a bankruptcy case is filed, an “automatic stay,” is triggered under Bankruptcy Code § 362. The automatic […]

The ABCs of ABCs, Business Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring/Insolvency [Authors’ Note: Before going any further, read Installment 4: Chapter 11—If You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen Them All. While you can generally read any installment in this series in any order or even by itself, this one is an exception…] And now, we present to you, the five stages of a “typical” chapter 11 case (subject to the caveats you read in our previous installment). By the way, make sure you read to the end so you can see what a […]

How Liquidity Becomes the Kryptonite of a Distressed Company’s Capital Structure A company’s “capital structure” is the array of its liabilities and equity. It is often described by the debt to equity ratio, which is the amount of total debt divided by total equity. Capital structure commonly consists of three main components: working capital (also known as operating debt), financing debt, and equity. Working capital, or operating debt, includes accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other current liabilities usually due within one year. Financing debt includes senior bank financing, leases, and […]

Facing Personal Liability for Business Debts? Who Ya’ Gonna Call?1 People who are not bankruptcy experts but who know something about the subject tend to put all bankruptcy attorneys into one of two buckets: (a) attorneys who help people file bankruptcy; and (b) attorneys who help businesses file bankruptcy. This distinction is mostly correct. Generally speaking, there are two types of people who file bankruptcy: (a) people who incurred debt for personal or household purposes, which are “most people;” and (b) people whose debt derives from some form of business […]

[Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on LinkedIn on September 20, 2020.] There has been a significant uptick in the number of articles appearing in mainstream media (e.g. newspapers) about the wave of bankruptcies that has already started to appear. One article (linked here), authored by Matt Egan for CNN Business and published about a week ago, caught my particular attention. It is well-written but there were a few things about it that were wrong or, at least, not entirely right. And, so here I am with my thoughts… In […]

How Unique Issues in Healthcare Restructuring Set It Apart from Corporate Restructuring   Over the past decade, arguably no industry experienced such dramatic regulatory change or consistent legislative uncertainty as healthcare. Today, continued efforts to repeal, defund, replace, or amend the Affordable Care Act—coupled with rising pharmaceutical costs, increased competition, massive capital investment expenses, etc.—virtually assure a challenging economic environment for healthcare companies for years to come.      However, given the stakes involved—and the unfortunate fact that healthcare restructuring provides little time for “on the job training”—practitioners must enter such engagements […]

Potential Outcomes of Intercreditor Deeds   Secured creditors often seek agreement among themselves in order to limit intercreditor conflict and expedite fulfillment of their respective claims against a borrower in a Chapter 11 case. One might call it a “strength through peace” approach.   However, in Chapter 11 cases, some courts have ignored intercreditor agreements in cramdown situations, refused to enforce certain terms as contrary to public policy, and have construed a given intercreditor agreement term as not covering the controversy at issue. We note that the likely fate of an […]

The ABCs of ABCs, Business Bankruptcy, & Corporate Restructuring/Insolvency This installment of our series is required reading for the next, which attempts the audacious task of describing a “typical” chapter 11. And if you didn’t get it, the title of this installment, “Chapter 11—If You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen Them All,” is intended to be sarcastic. That said… The Predictability of Chapter 11 and Likely Outcomes When a company files chapter 11, its experience will bear some resemblance to every chapter 11 that came before. We’re not saying anything momentous […]

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