Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has advised the Far-Eastern Shipping Company PLC and its subsidiaries on a new scheme of arrangement sanctioned by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales via an order dated November 3, 2017.
According to the Far-Eastern Shipping Company PLC (FESCO), the High Court's order sanctioning the scheme was delivered to the Registrar of Companies and became effective on November 3, 2017 (the “Scheme Effective Date”). FESCO reports that "the Scheme and the restructuring of the group’s indebtedness (the 'Restructuring') under the outstanding 8.00% senior secured notes due 2018 and 8.75% senior secured notes due 2020 (the 'USD Notes') implemented by the Scheme are described in the explanatory statement published on 11 October 2017 (the 'Explanatory Statement') and the document setting out the terms of the Scheme appended thereto (the 'Scheme Document')."
In addition, according to FESCO, "as set out in the Scheme Document, implementation of the Scheme is subject to certain conditions. These include satisfaction of all conditions precedent to the drawdown of the debt financing to be provided by VTB Bank PJSC for the purposes of funding the cash settlement amount required to be paid to scheme creditors under the Scheme. As announced previously, the relevant facility agreement was signed on 3 November 2017. The Group will use its best endeavors to ensure that the conditions are met as soon as possible and will separately notify scheme creditors of the proposed settlement date as required by the Scheme Document. In accordance with the Scheme Document, the settlement shall occur on or before 17 November 2017 (or such later date as may be agreed by at least 75% (by value) of the noteholders being scheme creditors)."
The Cleary team was led by Partner Polina Lyadnova, who served as Chairperson for the scheme meeting.
Editor's Note: After this article was published Herbert Smith Freehills announced that it had advised VTB Bank PJSC on the matter. Partner Olga Davydava and Senior Associate Vadim Panin led the firm's team.
