John R. Luze

Debtor Representations

• Ascena Retail Group, Inc. — Representation of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. and its affiliates in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Virginia. Ascena is a leading specialty retailer for women and girls with a collective of seven brands, including Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, Lane Bryant, Cacique, Catherines, and Justice, and over 2,800 stores, approximately 37,000 employees, and $1.6 billion in funded debt. Ascena filed for Chapter 11 with a restructuring support agreement that proposes to equitize over $1 billion of prepetition term loans and includes $150 million in committed new money DIP-to-exit financing to fund the Debtors’ business in and upon emergence from Chapter 11.
• McDermott International, Inc. ― Representation of McDermott International, Inc. and 225 of its subsidiaries and affiliates, including 107 foreign domiciled entities, in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas. McDermott is a premier, global upstream and downstream engineering, procurement, construction, and installation company and employs over 42,000 individuals across 54 countries and six continents. McDermott’s prepackaged Chapter 11 cases were confirmed in less than 60 days and contemplated a transaction that re-equitized the company, deleveraged over $4 billion of funded debt, preserved an unprecedented $2.4 billion in prepetition letters of credit, left trade claims unimpaired, and included a sale of McDermott’s Lummus technology business for $2.725 billion. McDermott emerged from Chapter 11 only five months after the petition date.
• Windstream Holdings, Inc., — Representation of Windstream Holdings, Inc., and its debtor subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Windstream is a leading provider of advanced network communications, technology, broadband, entertainment and security solutions to consumers and small businesses in 18 states. In bankruptcy, Windstream commenced litigation to recharacterize a $3.5 billion spin-off and master lease of certain telecommunications network assets. That litigation resulted in an innovative settlement that provided over approximately $1.2 billion in net present value and billions of dollars of improvement to Windstream’s telecommunications infrastructure. Windstream also confirmed a Chapter 11 plan or reorganization that addresses more than $5.6 billion in funded debt obligations, provides for a $750 million equity rights offering, and positions Windstream to achieve its long-term goals.
• Gastar Exploration Inc. ― Representation of Gastar Exploration Inc., and its wholly-owned subsidiary Northwest Property Ventures LLC, in their prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Gastar is a publicly-traded oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas with assets concentrated in the STACK shale play in Oklahoma. The company’s prepackaged restructuring proposes to address nearly $600 million in funded-debt and preferred equity obligations, including the elimination of more than $300 million in funded-debt and preferred equity obligations, and provides for $100 million in committed financing to fund the Debtors’ business in and upon emergence from Chapter 11.  
• Seadrill Limited ― Representation of Seadrill Limited and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries in their multi-jurisdictional restructuring of approximately $20 billion of contract and debt obligations. Seadrill is a leading global provider of offshore contract drilling services and employs nearly 4,000 individuals across 22 countries and five continents. Seadrill's pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases, one of the largest filings in 2017 based on asset size, resulted in the re-profiling of approximately $6 billion of secured debt, eliminated approximately $3.5 billion of unsecured bond and contractual obligations, and facilitated a capital investment of more than $1 billion. In the months preceding Chapter 11, Seadrill also consummated a series of ring-fencing transactions that successfully prevented its non-consolidated businesses from also having to commence Chapter 11 cases. Seadrill and its debtor subsidiaries confirmed their Chapter 11 plan with near universal consensus in approximately 7 months and emerged from Chapter 11 in less than 10 months.
• BCBG Max Azria Global Holdings, LLC ― Representation of BCBG Max Azria Global Holdings, LLC, and certain of its subsidiaries, in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. BCBG is a well-known and respected name in high-end women’s apparel and accessories and has historically operated more than 550 stores spread across all fifty states, Canada, Europe, and Japan. In 2018, the Turnaround Management Association recognized the successful restructuring of BCBG Max Azria Group, LLC with its “Large Company Turnaround of the Year Award.”
• Penn Virginia Corporation ― Representation of Penn Virginia Corporation in its prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Company filed for Chapter 11 with a support agreement with all of its secured debt and a supermajority of its unsecured debt regarding a transaction that will reduce the company’s long term debt from approximately $1.2 billion to approximately $128 million. Penn Virginia is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, development, and production of oil, NGLs, and natural gas. The company’s operations are focused on oilfields primarily in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, with additional properties in the Granite Wash in Oklahoma and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania.
• C&J Energy Services ― Representation of C&J Energy Services, a leading provider of well construction, well completions, well support and other complementary oilfield services to oil and gas exploration and production companies, in its prenegotiated Chapter 11 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. With nearly 5,000 employees, C&J services include directional drilling, cementing, hydraulic fracturing, cased-hole wireline, coiled tubing, rig services, fluids management services and other special well site services. C&J eliminated approximately $1.4 billion in debt from its balance sheet, substantially deleveraging its capital structure and strongly positioning the company for long-term success.
• Southcross Holdings LP ― Representation of Southcross Holdings LP and its subsidiaries (including Southcross Energy Partners, L.P., a master limited partnership), which provides gas gathering, compression, treating, processing and NGL fractionation and transportation services and had more than $1.4 billion in funded debt and preferred equity obligations. Southcross implemented the restructuring through a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the privately-held holding company―the first sponsor-backed prepackaged bankruptcy in the oil and gas industry. This 15-day bankruptcy was one of the shortest Chapter 11 reorganization cases in U.S. history.
• Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation ― Representation of Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation and its subsidiaries, an independent exploration and production company engaged in the acquisition, development and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil, primarily in the States of West Virginia and Ohio, in its Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Creditor and Investor Representations

• Proserv Group ― Representation of Oaktree Capital Management and KKR Credit Advisors as first lien lenders in an out-of-court exchange transaction. Proserv, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, is an energy services company offering marine technology services across the full life-of-field to its global customers. The transaction resulted in the consensual equitization of more than $500 million in funded debt and a $50 million new capital injection.
• Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. ― Representation of an ad hoc committee of unsecured noteholders in an out-of-court exchange transaction. Northern Oil & Gas is a leading non-operating oil and gas exploration and production company with assets located in Bakken and Three Forks plays in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. The exchange transaction addressed nearly $500 million in unsecured bond obligations through a conversion to new second lien secured notes and common equity.
• Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc. ― Representation of an ad hoc committee of unsecured noteholders in the prepackaged Chapter 11 cases of Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc. in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Bonanza Creek is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with assets located primarily in Colorado and Arkansas. Bonanza Creek’s prepackaged restructuring addressed its more than $1 billion in funded-debt obligations, including more than $800 million in unsecured note obligations.
• EIG Partners — Representation of EIG as the largest creditor in Intervention Energy’s Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
• Smart & Final Stores ― Representation of grocery chain, a portfolio company of Ares Capital, in its acquisition of 33 grocery stores from affiliates of Haggen, Inc. in their Chapter 11 auction and sale process.