Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises an ad-hoc committee of noteholders on the major restructuring of SGS Finance's debt secured on four former Intu shopping centres in the UK

Clifford Chance has advised an ad-hoc committee of bondholders (the AHC) on the major restructuring of SGS Finance's debt secured on four former Intu shopping centres in the UK - Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, Watford’s Atria shopping centre in Watford, Victoria Centre in Nottingham and the Braehead Shopping Centre in Glasgow. The restructuring was completed on 16 July 2021.

The restructuring includes the injection of a new £86.9m "super senior" facility as part of the measures designed to support a three year restructuring and exit strategy.

Clifford Chance's structured debt, real estate finance and restructuring teams collaborated to advise the AHC on debt rescheduling discussions with Intu plc prior to it entering into administration in June 2020. Following the administration of Intu plc, the team continued to advise the AHC on various creditor consent solicitations to transition the structure away from Intu management. The most recent consent solicitation passed on 12 July 2021 to approve the major restructuring of SGS Finance's debt.

The Clifford Chance team is recognised as market leaders across structured debt, real estate finance and restructuring. The teams are all ranked as leaders in their field in Chambers, Legal 500 and IFLR directories and have recently been recognised with awards including Commercial Real Estate/CMBS at GlobalCapital's European Securitization Awards 2021, Restructuring Deal of the Year for the restructuring of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Structured Finance and Securitisation Deal of the Year for the MUFG ESG CLO at the IFLR Europe Awards 2021.

The Clifford Chance team included Jane Cheong Tung Sing (real estate finance partner) and Chris Walsh (structured debt partner) supported by associates Marcus Tadros, Su Lin Khor, Emma Porter and Mark McGuire advising on the structured debt and financing aspects of the transaction. Philip Hertz and David Towers (restructuring partners) supported by associate Christopher Norman on the restructuring and insolvency aspects of the transaction. Chris Davies (tax partner) supported by associate Jemma Dick on the tax aspects of the transaction. Alis Pay (real estate partner) supported by associate Rose Laitner on the real estate aspects of the transaction.