Schulte Roth & Zabel partner Martin Sharkey was featured in a PitchBook article that discussed the wide array of tools European Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) managers have to handle stressed and distressed assets. According to the article, the expected restructuring of Altice France’s debt could compel CLO managers to reclassify some obligations, potentially using less common tools like uptier priming debt, loss mitigation obligation or bankruptcy exchange buckets. Despite their underuse, these tools are crucial in a challenging market with sophisticated sponsors. 

Martin highlighted the balance CLO managers must strike between flexibility and investor safeguards. “Managers like the flexibility to be able to add loss mitigation obligations and uptier priming debt to the portfolios, but it is quite common to receive pushback from debt investors on this flexibility,” he said. Martin further explained that these tools are seen differently by various investor groups, with some viewing them as essential defense mechanisms, while others prefer to limit their use due to concerns over manager expertise. 

Read the article, “European CLO managers ready toolkit to deal with stressed assets.”

In his latest article for The Bankruptcy Strategist titled, “Circuit Courts Split On Review of Bankruptcy Court’s Denial of Motion to Dismiss,” Schulte Roth & Zabel of counsel Michael L. Cook discusses the division of appellate courts in reviewing bankruptcy court denials of motions to dismiss cases, with recent contradictory rulings highlighting this split.

Appellate courts are split on whether to review a bankruptcy court’s denial of a motion to dismiss an entire case. Two district judges within the past few months, hearing appeals from the bankruptcy court, have reached contrary results that underline the split among the nation’s courts of appeals noted below. See, e.g., In re Maison Royale, LLC, 2024 WL 2699994 (E.D. La. May 24, 2024) (denied leave to appeal interlocutory order that denied a creditor’s “motion to dismiss the bankruptcy case due to bad faith filing.”) citing In re Phillips, 844 F.2d 230 (5th Cir. 1988); contra, In re AIG Financial Products Corp., 2024 WL 810051 (D. Del. Feb. 27, 2024) (order denying dismissal of Chapter 11 case is final and appealable), citing In re Brown, 916 F.2d 120 (3d Cir. 1990). As discussed in this article, if Congress does not resolve this particular circuit split, appellate courts should adopt the Third Circuit’s “pragmatic” approach to review these denial orders.

Read the article.