PES Holdings, LLC — Representing PES Holdings, LLC in its Chapter 11 cases initiated in July 2019, four weeks after a catastrophic explosion at PES’s Girard Point refining complex that resulted in a permanent shutdown of PES’s refining operations. Following this event, PES worked quickly to obtain access to $100 million of new DIP financing from its term loan lenders and negotiated consensual cash collateral usage with its working capital lender to finance its Chapter 11 cases. In Chapter 11, PES pursued a competitive sale process for the refinery site and a claim under its $1.25 billion property insurance policy. The process culminated in a $225.5 million equity sale to Hilco Redevelopment Partners under a Chapter 11 plan. The Chapter 11 plan and sale were approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in February 2020, less than 8 months after the catastrophic explosion.
Lakeland Tours, LLP — Representing Lakeland Tours, LLP d/b/a WorldStrides (“WorldStrides”) and certain of its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. WorldStrides is a provider of educational travel experiences both domestically and abroad and filed for Chapter 11 to restructure more than $768 million of funded indebtedness after the worldwide shutdown of travel due to COVID-19 negatively impacted their businesses during their peak tour operating season.
Whiting Petroleum Corporation — Representing Whiting Petroleum Corporation and certain of its affiliates (collectively “Whiting”) in connection with Whiting’s prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Whiting is a Denver-based publicly traded independent exploration and production company with an oil focused asset base, employing approximately 500 employees and with funded debt of approximately $3.4 billion as of the Chapter 11 filing. Whiting entered into a restructuring support agreement with its unsecured noteholders, which contemplated a Chapter 11 plan that would provide 97% of the reorganized equity to noteholders and other holders of general unsecured claims, while still providing a recovery to existing equityholders in the form of the remaining 3% of reorganized equity. Through the deal reached with Whiting’s lenders and noteholders, Whiting will delever its balance sheet by eliminating over $2.7 billion of funded debt.
Frontier Communications Corporation — Representing Frontier Communications Corporation and its 103 debtor subsidiaries in their prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. With over $17.5 billion in outstanding funded debt, Frontier’s Chapter 11 cases were among the largest filed in 2020. Frontier, together with its subsidiaries, have over 4 million customers, and 18,000 employees across 29 states. The company’s prearranged plan, which was confirmed in approximately four months, effected a balance sheet restructuring that will reduce the company’s outstanding funded debt by over $10 billion, carries broad stakeholder support and proposes unimpairment of all general unsecured creditors.
