When a company files for bankruptcy, creditors often wonder if they will get paid. The answer depends on the priority and treatment of each claim in the bankruptcy process. Troutman Pepper's Creditor’s Rights Toolkit...more
This practice note discusses how a bankruptcy court may recharacterize documents that purport to create a loan transaction and determine that the transaction, despite labels, is something else—a transaction providing for a...more
It is generally recognized that a bankruptcy court has the power—either equitable or statutory—to recharacterize a purported debt as equity if the substance of the transaction belies the labels the parties have given it. A...more
When is a loan not a loan? The SDNY Bankruptcy Court in In Re: Live Primary, LLC held that a $6 million start-up loan was actually an equity contribution after analyzing the terms of the transaction and the intent of the...more
Recently, in Official Comm. of Unsecured Creditors v. Victory Park Capital Advisors, LLC (In re Katy Indus., Inc.), Case No. 17-50937 (Bankr. D. Del. July 6, 2018), the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware dismissed...more
In the case In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 855 F.3d 459 (2d Cir. 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court order subordinating the claims of former Lehman Brothers employees for...more
Section 510(b) of the Bankruptcy Code provides a mechanism designed to preserve the creditor/shareholder risk allocation paradigm by categorically subordinating most types of claims asserted against a debtor by equityholders...more
Venture capitalists (“VCs”) often provide needed debt financing such as bridge loans to emerging companies in financial distress. However, given their insider status with these companies, VCs may encounter issues with such...more
In that case, Walnut Creek Mining Company (“Walnut Creek”), the debtor Optim Energy’s largest unsecured creditor, sought standing to pursue recharacterization, equitable subordination, and fiduciary duty claims on behalf of...more
In a recent case — In re Optim Energy, LLC — the Delaware Bankruptcy Court denied an individual creditor’s request to pursue the subordination or recharacterization of the claims of secured lenders who were also the debtors’...more
The Ninth Circuit in In re Fitness Holdings Int’l, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 8729 (9th Cir. April 30, 2013) recently reversed precedent and established that bankruptcy courts in the Ninth Circuit have the power to determine...more