Winding Up — Oh there ain’t no rest for the distressed, money don’t grow on trees

9fin team

10 May 2024•4 min read

The bank holiday weekend did not stop the distressed market from working away with French concrete maker Consolis announcing its restructuring plan on Saturday (4 May), Swedish property developer SBB announcing its Q1 24 earnings on Monday (6 May) and French software company Atos releasing the various restructuring proposals it received.

As we sat back down at our desks this week, our analysts did a deep dive into the range of eventualities for Altice France. Our journalists were also busy chasing down leads over in Germany, getting the latest the lifting of a Luxembourg court injunction against Aggregate’s Project Fürst and the two competing proposals to provide emergency bridge financing and restructure OQ Chemicals.

This week’s news

Altice France — The French Telco’s standoff with creditors is heating up. To determine potential outcomes for creditors it's first important to understand not only where value breaks but also where it sits in the group, and owner Patrick Drahi’s levers to direct proceedings. 9fin’s deep-dive report explores the range of eventualities that are blown open by creditors’ diverging incentives, Drahi’s huge capacity to strip value away from the group, French law considerations and the intricacies of timings, triggers and creditor group make-ups.

Aggregate — A former property development vehicle of the German property company has convinced a Luxembourg court to lift a freezing injunction against it on Friday, 3 May, according to 9fin’s sources. The removal of the injunction moves the developer one step closer to recognition of the company’s UK restructuring plan in Luxembourg. Elliott Aintabi, a creditor holding €10m of a €70m third-ranking junior loan released under Project Lietzenburger Straße HoldCo’s (doing business as Project Fürst) UK restructuring plan in March, secured the injunction — which had a €100m penalty for infringement — at an ex parte hearing before the Luxembourg Commercial Court on 28 March.

Consolis — Arini, Contrarian and AlbaCore are leading an ad hoc group of bondholders set to take the keys to the French concrete maker and already have the requisite majorities to restructure the company’s capital structure through a Dutch share pledge, according to 9fin’s sources. The business announced a restructuring proposal on Saturday (4 May) and also unveiled most of the terms of the deal in a market update presentation released the same day.

OQ Chemicals — The German chemicals producer has received two proposals for the restructuring of its $1bn of loans due in October. One is from its former owner Advent and the other is from an ad hoc group of lenders that hold over 50% of its outstanding debt, two sources close to the situation told 9fin. Advent’s proposal is backed by OQ SAOC — formerly Oman Oil Company — who wants to sell its majority stake.

SBB — Swedish real estate developer reported first quarter earnings for the three-month period ending 31 March, while also assuring investors that it has the liquidity to pay a deferred equity dividend in June. Additionally, the company’s Treasury Director Helena Lindahl said on an earnings call held on Monday (6 May) (9fin transcript here) that with regards to its balance sheet, “our main focus and top priority is to reduce the level of debt, but also on the dependence on individual sources of funding.”

Steward Health Care — Steward‘s descent into bankruptcy is discussed on the Cloud 9fin podcast on how the hospital operator ended up in its current situation and the many challenges Steward and its landlord Medical Properties Trust — which has billions in cross-currency debt — have to navigate.