Investment Banking

Legal and Practical Issues Involving Secured Creditors and the Retention of Financial Advisors.

How does valuation factor into successful distressed investment strategies? Are valuations for distressed assets and companies increasingly dependent on an assessment of the underlying hard assets of target companies? How does commodity pricing risk factor in? What happens when valuations in general become too rich for firms to generate returns typically sought by distressed investors? Are distressed investors becoming more opportunistic by looking beyond valuation metrics to enhance returns through advocating legal interpretations in underlying credit documents to support enhanced recoveries? Our roundtable will examine these questions and discuss their views on the outlook for distressed investing in 2016 and beyond.

You Are Selling My What? Valuation and Sale of Intellectual Property and Customer Information by a Distressed Company

This panel will present a roundtable discussion.

This panel will discuss bankruptcy-related issues affecting private equity funds, including fiduciary duty and corporate governance issues, WARN Act and pension issues, and fund liability for portfolio company obligations, as well as issues affecting hedge funds, including recent decisions interpreting the Indenture Trust Act, claims trading, restriction and disclosure issues.

The existence of multiple bondholders can impose uncertainty and gamesmanship in a contest for economic gain from distressed corporate situations. The paper that they hold rarely tells the whole story; bondholders may have competing investments, undisclosed hedges and varying purchase price discounts that make it impossible to determine their true position. This panel will explore issues related to bondholder-led restructurings and takeovers, including the operation of ad hoc committees, the role of indenture trustees, conflicts, disclosures, subordination and deal structures.

Structuring Cross-Border Deals to Protect Creditor Interests

This panel will explore the role of hedge funds in bankruptcy cases, including how they have changed the restructuring landscape.

Both equity investors and lenders often evaluate potential transactions in the context of their overall portfolios as well as the potential value proposition presented by the specific opportunity. Capital providers pay attention to risk allocation across industry sectors and asset classes, among other investment considerations. This panel will discuss the role that asset valuation and enterprise valuation play in deal making and strategic portfolio management.

The Till v. SCS Decision was handed down in May 2004, making 2014 the 10-year anniversary of one of the most important bankruptcy decisions of all time. This panel, which features the lawyers who argued the matter before the Supreme Court (Eric Brunstad), as well as others who have argued significant post-Till interest rate cases, will discuss the evolution of Till and where we are today.