Insolvency & Restructuring

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An insolvent or struggling business can become bankrupt, or it can seek to preserve value by restructuring and/or being sold as a going concern. These proceedings are fast-paced and involve many competing interests. Experienced legal counsel is essential.

We are recognized as having expertise and a creative approach to dealing with challenging, complex and often multi-jurisdictional insolvency and restructuring mandates. We have acted for various stakeholders, such as debtor corporations, secured lenders, creditors’ committees, suppliers, trustees, monitors, interim-receivers, receivers, directors and officers.

By way of example, our previous mandates have included:

  • restructuring of a debtor corporation by renegotiation of debt to restore liquidity;
  • compromise of debt achieved by proposals and plans of arrangement;
  • purchase and sale of the debtor’s assets or business as a going concern;
  • recovering unpaid goods delivered prior to insolvency proceedings;
  • implementation of claims processes;
  • opposing invalid claims made in insolvency proceedings and recovering payments made in connection therewith;
  • replacement of trustees; and
  • defending directors from claims made by creditors of the debtor corporation.

Representative examples of high-profile insolvency files in which our firm has played an active role in recent years include:

Debtor Client
4519922 Canada Inc. (Coopers & Lybrand) Creditors’ Committee and major creditors
ABC Containerline, N.V. (Belgium) Trustee in Belgium
Abitibi Bowater Inc. Monitor
Air Canada Holders of subordinated perpetual debt
Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. Suppliers of aircraft parts
Bassé Frères Debtor
Dominion Investments (Nassau) Ltd. Liquidator
Dominion Metal & Refining Works Ltd. Secured creditor/Trustee
Homburg Invest Inc. Office landlord
Jetsgo Corporation Aircraft lessors
Laura’s Shoppe (P.V.) Inc. Monitor
Minco-Division Construction Inc. Debtor
Norshield/Olympus United Group Receiver/Monitor
Olympia & York Developments Ltd. Debtor/Reichmann family
Olympus Univest/Mosaic Composite Joint Official Liquidator
Perrette Inc. Debtor
Pneutech-Rousseau Inc. Secured creditor/Debtor
Wabush Mines et al. Salaried employees and retirees
Yellow Media Inc. Subordinated debentureholders
Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited,
Rothmans, Benson & Hedges
and JTI-MacDonald Corp
Quebec Class Action Plaintiffs