WilmerHale Secures Successful Restructuring for Satélites Mexicanos
- 1.1.2007
A team of WilmerHale lawyers led by Dennis Jenkins and George Shuster represented the ad hoc committee of floating-rate note holders in the successful restructuring of more than $700 million of notes and other obligations of Satélites Mexicanos, SA de CV (SatMex), the leading provider of domestic fixed satellite services in Mexico. The restructuring, which involved separate bankruptcy proceedings in Mexico and the United States, was one of the largest and most complex cross-border restructurings in Mexican history.
The restructuring was extraordinarily complicated by, among other things, a unique combination of US and Mexican stakeholders (including the Mexican government as a shareholder, creditor, and regulator) and the unavailability of any single legal regime to compel critical, non-consenting stakeholders to accept a plan of reorganization. The joint bankruptcy proceedings tested the bounds of Mexico's newly rewritten bankruptcy code and the ability of a Mexican company to restructure its debt under United States law. Ultimately, the success of the SatMex restructuring serves as an example of the value provided by lawyers able to navigate the intricacies of cross-border, multi-proceeding reorganizations.
