Herbert Smith joins insolvency rush with oil company mandate
Herbert Smith has become the latest firm to benefit from the run of UK restructuring and insolvency mandates, winning a role on the collapse of London and Toronto-listed Oilexco. Finance head Jason Fox and restructuring partner Kevin Pullen are leading a five-partner team advising administrator Ernst & Young on the collapse, which sees Oilexco become the oil industry's first casualty of the crunch. McCarthy Tetrault is advising Oilexco, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advising the banks involved in the deal. The administration is the latest in a stream of instructions for City firms in recent weeks, as well-known names ranging from Waterford Wedgwood to Zavvi have gone under.
January 14, 2009 at 10:10 PM
3 minute read
A string of retail collapses hits market amid grim high street trading
Herbert Smith has become the latest firm to benefit from the run of UK restructuring and insolvency mandates, winning a role on the collapse of London and Toronto-listed Oilexco.
Finance head Jason Fox (pictured) and restructuring partner Kevin Pullen are leading a five-partner team advising administrator Ernst & Young on the collapse, which sees Oilexco become the oil industry's first casualty of the crunch. McCarthy Tetrault is advising Oilexco, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advising the banks involved in the deal.
The administration is the latest in a stream of instructions for City firms in recent weeks, as well-known names ranging from Waterford Wedgwood to Zavvi have gone under.
Last week (5 January) saw iconic china and crystal company Waterford Wedgwood enter into administration, with magic circle duo Linklaters and Slaughter and May taking lead roles.
Slaughters is fielding a team led by finance partners Andrew Jolly, Ian Hodgson and Sanjev Warna-kula-suriya. Meanwhile, Linklaters is advising Deloitte, with Tony Bugg, global head of restructuring and insolvency, leading the team alongside insolvency partner Rebecca Jarvis.
SJ Berwin and Hammonds, meanwhile, picked up roles on the collapse of tea-maker Whittard of Chelsea – one of a number of retailers failing towards the end of last year. The company went intoadministration on 24 December but was immediately sold to Epic Private Equity. SJ Berwin restructuring and insolvency partner Mike Woollard led the team for Ernst & Young with Hammonds' corporate partners James McKay and John Alderton at the helm for Epic.
Other key mandates in recent weeks include DLA Piper advising Ernst & Young as administrator to long-standing client Zavvi, Bond Pearce advising on the collapse of furniture store Pier and Speechly Bircham acting on the administration of MFI after an unsuccessful management buyout.
As Legal Week went to press, Ashurst secured a role advising Deloitte on the administration of Land of Leather.
Peter Somekh, the DLA Piper partner advising on Zavvi's collapse, said: "We will see huge challenges in the next 12 months for retailers. The pressure is not just coming from a lack of consumer confidence but also struggling suppliers. There will be a mix of formal insolvencies and distressed work available over the next year."
Restructuring partners are predicting their workflow will increase dramatically with retail, automotive and other highly-leveraged companies across all sectors under particular threat.
Bugg said: "The world changed when Lehman collapsed – I am not sure that any part of the market is entirely protected [from insolvency]. It is still really early days."
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