March 30, 2012
Firm recognized for its lead role in the cross-border restructuring of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., at the 2012 IFLR Americas Awards in New York City.
On March 29, Willkie was among a small group of honorees recognized at the 2012 IFLR Americas Awards in the category of "Restructuring Deal of the Year" for its lead role in the cross-border restructuring of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Willkie served as United States restructuring counsel for global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company Angiotech (and certain of its U.S. and Canadian affiliates) in its successful 2011 restructuring, which was achieved with insolvency proceedings lasting less than four months.
In May 2011, Angiotech implemented a consensual recapitalization transaction supported by the vast majority of the company’s prepetition noteholders. The restructuring was effected, in part, through simultaneous insolvency proceedings before the Supreme Court of British Columbia, pursuant to Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, and before the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, pursuant to chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Concurrently with the insolvency proceedings, Angiotech effected an out-of-court exchange of its floating rate notes. The novel dual-restructuring approach was a first in Canada, and IFLR noted that the Angiotech restructuring matter is expected to become a precedent. The consummation of the recapitalization transaction represented the culmination of approximately nine months of negotiations with Angiotech’s significant prepetition creditors and the settlement of material prepetition litigation.
Willkie was also nominated in the category of "High Yield Deal of the Year" for its role in Fiat’s completion of its acquisition of Chrysler equity from U.S. Treasury and Canada. Additionally, last week at the 2012 IFLR Europe Awards, Willkie was honored in the categories of "European Private Equity Team of the Year" and "Private Equity Deal of the Year." Click here for Willkie’s announcement.
This Angiotech restructuring was handled by partners Marc Abrams, Shaunna Jones, Jeffery Goldfarb, Cristopher Greer and Terence McLaughlin, and associates Shireen Hilal, Jesenia Ruiz de la Torre, Jeffery Fang, Elizabeth Horowitz, Jennifer Wade, Alex Cannon, Julian Golay, Kennon Scott and Andrew Pfau.
The International Financial Law Review (IFLR), based in the U.K., is a leading publisher for the financial legal community.
