March 29, 2018
On March 27, Magazine des Affaires announced that the CGG deal has been named 2018 Restructuring Deal of the Year in France (Opération de l’Année Grand Prix Restructuration).
CGG is one of the largest restructurings in French history, and the first-ever successful coordination of a French sauvegarde proceedings with a U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy case, CGG, a geosciences company that provides services to the oil and gas industry, completed a multi-billion dollar restructuring on February 21, 2018.
A cross-border team of Willkie attorneys led by Lionel Spizzichino advised the Steering Committee of CGG’s high-yield bondholders who, as a result of a debt-for-equity swap that was the centerpiece of the transaction, are now among the company’s largest equity holders.
The multidisciplinary Willkie team included partner Lionel Spizzichino and national partner Gabriel Flandin in Paris, partners John Longmire and Leonard Klingbaum in New York and Graham Lane in London. The team also included counsel Weston Eguchi; special European counsel Igor Kukhta and associates Thomas Doyen, Batiste Saint-Guily, Gregoire Dumazy, Ji Hun Kim, Jason St. John, Audrey Nelson and Jason Pearl, Iben Madsen, Alexander Roy and Stephen Kennedy.
Magazine des Affaires is a leading French business publication.