Kirkland & Ellis Receives Restructuring Award from Turnaround Management Association
The Turnaround Management Association (TMA) announced that Kirkland & Ellis LLP will receive the "Transaction of the Year: Large Company," for its work in the restructuring of Aquilex Holdings LLC. The winners will be honored at the association's 24th annual conference, The Annual, from November 1-3.
Since 1993, TMA has honored excellence through its annual awards program, which recognizes the most successful turnarounds and impactful transactions. TMA is the leading organization dedicated to turnaround management, corporate restructuring, and distressed investing. Established in 1988, TMA has more than 9,000 members in 49 chapters worldwide, including 32 in North America. Members include turnaround practitioners, attorneys, accountants, investors, lenders, venture capitalists, appraisers, liquidators, executive recruiters and consultants, as well as academic, government and judicial employees.
Kirkland represented Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and its affiliates in the out-of-court restructuring of Aquilex, which was completed on February 3, 2012. Centerbridge acquired a substantial portion of the target's public bonds and led a restructuring that converted nearly all of Aquilex's bonds into equity. Centerbridge affiliates are now the majority owners of Aquilex.
Centerbridge and Kirkland negotiated with three holders of the public bonds and the lenders under Aquilex senior credit facilities to enter into a restructuring support agreement and backstop purchase agreement. The bond holders, existing equity holders and 100 percent of the senior credit facility lenders agreed to support the proposed restructuring. In total, the transaction restructured approximately $500 million of obligations. Partners James H.M. Sprayregen, P.C., Anup Sathy, P.C. and Joshua Sussberg represented Centerbridge.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a 1,500-attorney law firm representing global clients in complex restructuring, corporate and tax, litigation, dispute resolution and arbitration, and intellectual property and technology matters. The Firm has offices in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, Calif., San Francisco and Washington D.C.
