2021

Presented in two parts, this panel will discuss European loan structure developments, including but not limited to a shift in European loan structures to U.S. debt instruments, how these credits will be restructured, whether the existing tools in Europe will work for bond-issuers, and more. Brexit’s impact on recognition proceedings, as well as COMI-shifting and jurisdiction issues, will also be covered.

This panel will explore the 20-year ongoing opioid crisis in the pharmaceutical industry. The discussion will feature such opioid bankruptcy cases as Purdue and Mallinckrodt, and other recent rulings.

The panelists will revisit real estate and real estate-based business workouts, bankruptcies and restructurings during the peak of the pandemic and extrapolate the lessons learned as guidance for debtors, tenants, landlords and investors moving forward as we begin the recovery period. The panelists also will focus on important pandemic bankruptcy cases and key rulings on leases and workout strategies, and will assess issues surrounding asset valuations and projections.

Up-tier exchanges, covenant-stripping and removal of collateral from secured lenders' reach have been in vogue for some time, going back to the Marblegate district court opinion and its reversal on appeal. The immense number of capital-chasing deals that have occurred since have continued this trend, and that obviously affects valuation, especially in litigated cases. This panel will explore the key issues involved, and how valuation plays a role in how disputes are resolved.

Join us for a robust discussion concerning Ethics in Healthcare Insolvencies, where the panel will explore a myriad of issues, including: ethical implications in the context of valuing healthcare companies or providers in the age of COVID-19 (where we were, where we are, where we may be going); the concomitant impact on valuation of healthcare companies or providers vis-à-vis increasing the minimum wage and providing the required level of care; capital allocation between patients’ medical needs and fiscal responsibility and management as healthcare companies or providers face restructuring or liquidity issues; steps directors and officers of healthcare companies or providers should consider when they are insolvent (e.g., deciding whether to restructure or file bankruptcy; to whom do the fiduciary duties flow (e.g., to creditors, still to patients, etc.); duty to transfer patients of closing healthcare business and restrictions on transfers; termination of provider agreements or assumption and assignment; and lender issues.

This panel will focus on the impact of government funding and other recovery programs on valuation in health care, life sciences and other industries. The panelists also will discuss how traditional methods of valuation are being challenged by the current situation, and the programs that have emerged to address the resulting distress.

This panel will focus on the impact of government funding and other recovery programs on valuation in health care, life sciences and other industries. The panelists also will discuss how traditional methods of valuation are being challenged by the current situation, and the programs that have emerged to address the resulting distress.

Short- and long-term governmental goals linked to zero-carbon electricity-generation have fostered the increased deployment of renewable energy sources and improved transmission and storage distribution. In turn, renewable and alternative energy sources — in tandem with systemic lower natural gas prices and lower electricity demand — have and will continue to cause distress in the merchant power sector, notwithstanding random black swan events like February’s storm in Texas. No doubt the road ahead will be ridden by complexity, not just in relation to market, environmental and economic dynamics, but because of the outsized role Federal law plays in the industry, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the Federal Power Act and the Bankruptcy Code. This session’s panelists, all of whom have experience in the renewable energy and power sectors, will discuss valuation and other relevant issues in the context of expanding alternative and renewable energy sources, and the pressures this expansion will have on the merchant power sector.

Chesapeake Energy, an exploration and production company, filed for chapter 11 on June 28, 2020, in the Southern District of Texas and emerged from bankruptcy on Feb. 9, 2021. This session’s panelists, all of whom were involved in the bankruptcy court hearings, will contrast (in a non-advocating fashion) the different valuation methodologies used by the debtors’ and UCC’s valuation experts with the primary legal arguments raised by the debtors’ and UCC’s legal teams.

While COVID-19 has led to a substantial increase in the number of bankruptcy filings, its impact on valuation issues in the context of chapter 11 cases is less clear. Employing their differing perspectives, the panelists will explore how the uncertainty created by COVID-19 has affected the analysis of issues like plan feasibility, cost of capital, the pricing of risk, and the application of valuation methodologies in chapter 11 proceedings, with a particular emphasis on retail cases.