Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and CMS called in as Phones 4U enters administration
Clifford Chance (CC), Allen & Overy (A&O)and CMS Cameron McKenna are among the line-up of firms landing legal roles on the high profile collapse of Phones 4u and its subsidiaries.
September 17, 2014 at 05:22 AM
2 minute read
Clifford Chance (CC), Allen & Overy (A&O) and CMS Cameron McKenna are among the line-up of firms landing legal roles on the high profile collapse of Phones 4u and its subsidiaries.
PwC partners Jonathan Hunt, Ian Green and Robert Moran were appointed as administrators to the mobile phone retailer on Monday (15 September), following decisions by mobile networks EE and Vodafone not to renew major supply contracts with Phones 4u beyond 2015.
A total of nine companies in the Phones 4u group have since been placed into administration: 4u Wi-Fi Limited, 4u Limited, Jump 4u Limited, MobileServ Limited, Phosphorus Acquisition Limited, Phones 4U Group Limited, Phones4u Finance Plc.
A&O global restructuring and insolvency group managing partner Mark Sterling and restructuring partner Ian Field are leading for PwC and Phones 4u. Sterling said the appointment marks the first time the magic circle firm has acted for the company.
Sterling previously advised on the restructurings of the insolvencies of Lehman Brothers and various Icelandic Banks during the financial crisis, and took a lead role on the special administration and subsequent return to public ownership of transport infrastructure company Metronet.
One leading restructuring partner said he expected the lead role would require "a huge amount of employment advice that few firms could staff", given the company employs 5,596 staff based in 700 outlets.
CC finance partner Charles Cochrane is understood to have taken a role for the company's bank lenders, while CMS Cameron McKenna restructuring partner Martin Brown is leading a team advising the company's security trustee ING Bank.
Brown returned to CMS in 2013, a year after he left the firm to join Ashurst's restructuring practice.
Separately, Brown Rudnick's head of European restructuring Louise Verrill is leading a team of lawyers advising the company's senior secured note holders. Last year, Verrill took a role for a group of retail bondholders in the restructuring of the Co-operative Bank.
Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co, which advised Phones 4u's management on the the company's private equity sale from Providence Equity Partners to BC Partners in 2011, has not taken a role on the administration.
That deal yielded roles for Weil Gotshal & Manges and Dickson Minto, which represented Providence and BC respectively.
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