Restructuring and Distressed Transactions

Wiggin and Dana’s Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Practice Group has a wide range of experience providing advice to clients in connection with complex special situations and distressed transactions, including out-of-court financial restructurings, loan workouts, bankruptcy cases and distressed sales and acquisitions. Our work is nationwide and covers a broad spectrum of industries. Wiggin and Dana’s restructuring team has represented buyers of distressed assets, distressed companies (including private equity- and venture-backed), investors in distressed businesses, debtors, secured lenders (including debtor-in-possession lenders), ad hoc and official creditors’ committees, indenture trustees, equity holders, real property and equipment lessors and patient care ombudsmen.

Understanding that each situation is unique and that solutions are not one-size-fits-all, the Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group is well versed in counseling distressed companies, administrative agents, lenders and other involved parties and finding creative strategies to maximize value and resolve disputes related to such distress, whether through sales or capital raises, loan workouts or refinancings, out-of-court financial restructurings or bankruptcies (including pre-negotiated or prepackaged bankruptcies). With the complement of the firm’s other practice groups (such as corporate, finance and lending, real estate, environmental, labor/employment and benefits, intellectual property, tax, antitrust and regulatory), the team is positioned to provide clients with global advice regarding the opportunities and risks presented by transactions by or with distressed, bankrupt and newly emerged companies.

Distressed Sales and Acquisitions

Together with Wiggin and Dana’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice, the Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group represents a wide range of clients in complex M&A matters, completing such transactions both in- and out-of-court. Our team’s M&A lawyers are experienced representing buyers and sellers in connection with distressed strategic companies, distressed private equity portfolio companies and distressed venture-backed companies, focusing on middle-market deals across numerous industries and leverage the firm’s other practice areas to efficiently identify risk and develop transaction structures that mitigate risk and facilitate a successful transaction.

Out-of-Court Financial Restructurings and Loan Workouts

The Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group, with the support of the Finance and Lending Group, regularly provides legal services in all areas of creditors’ rights in connection with out-of-court financial restructurings and loan workouts, including: the review of existing loan facility documentation; the preparation, negotiation and consummation of forbearance agreements and other financial restructuring documentation; security interest perfection analysis and amelioration; the identification and addressing of general insolvency issues; and general strategic planning. Wiggin and Dana regularly assists U.S. and foreign bank and other financial institution clients in structuring and documenting domestic and cross-border, out-of-court financial restructurings and loan workouts.

Health Care Business Restructurings and Distressed Transactions

In collaboration with Wiggin and Dana’s top-ranked Health Care Practice, the Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group offers a special focus on distressed health care businesses, bringing a wealth of knowledge in distressed health care bankruptcies, reorganizations and distressed transactions. The pairing of the Health Care Group and the Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group allows clients to receive robust advice on issues unique to distressed and bankrupt health care providers, such as those related to the treatment of provider agreements and associated liabilities, regulatory issues including CON issues unique to distressed and bankrupt providers and issues related to patient records and confidentiality, among others. In addition to routinely representing health care providers and other constituencies in out-of-court financial restructurings, loan workouts, bankruptcies and distressed transactions, Wiggin and Dana’s Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Group has experience in providing advice in health care receiverships and other state-mandated oversight relationships. 

Restructuring and Distressed Transactions Experience

Wiggin and Dana’s restructuring lawyers have a wealth of experience in complex restructurings and distressed transactions, including:

• Represent Bethel Nursing Home Company, in its capacity as a member, in the chapter 11 bankruptcy case of HBL SNF (d/b/a Epic Rehabilitation and Nursing at White Plains), in the Southern District of New York.
• Represented UMB Bank, N.A., as indenture trustee, in the bankruptcy case of Amsterdam at Harborside, a continuing care retirement community, in the Eastern District of New York.
• Represented HARMAN International, an audio and electronics company, in its acquisition of Savari, Inc., a designer and manufacture of wireless electronic equipment for the automotive industry. This deal was conducted via pre-arranged chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in the Southern District of New York, and was one of the first complex plan sales successfully completed under subchapter V of chapter 11.
• Represented Stonehenge Capital’s investment in the management buyout of an asset management solutions business from a Fortune 25 company.
• Represented First Physicians Capital Group in connection with the bankruptcy section 363 sale of a critical access hospital in the Northern District of Oklahoma and later, upon a change in venue, the Eastern District of North Carolina.*
• Represented a New York State long term care provider in connection with a potential chapter 11 filing in the Northern District of New York.*Represented The Bethel Methodist Home in its successful bid for and acquisition of The Knolls, a Bethel Community (f/k/a Westchester Meadows), a continuing care retirement community, through a bankruptcy section 363 sale in the Southern District of New York.*
• Represented Westchester Medical Center in its acquisition of MidHudson Regional Hospital (f/k/a St. Francis’ Hospital, Poughkeepsie, New York) through a bankruptcy section 363 sale in the Southern District of New York.*
• Represented Latex Foam International Holdings, Inc. in connection with the corporate aspects of its financial restructuring and emergence from chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• Represented the Revel Hotel & Casino, a multi-billion dollar casino resort located in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in connection with its chapter 11 cases in New Jersey.*
• Represented Classic Party Rentals, one of the largest event rental companies in the United States, in connection with its chapter 11 cases in Delaware.*
• Represented Roust Trading Ltd., owner of Russian Standard Vodka, in connection with its acquisition of Central European Distribution Corporation (CEDC), a leading producer and distributor of spirts in Russia, Poland and Hungary, through CEDC’s pre-packaged chapter 11 cases in Delaware.*
• Represented iGPS, the largest plastic pallet pooling company in the United States, in connection with its chapter 11 case in Delaware.*

*Denotes experience at a prior firm