A Milbank LLP team led by Tokyo-based partner Andrew Pendleton has advised the lenders to the Ambatovy Project on the litigation of the first English law restructuring plan (“RP”) for a project financing.
The diverse multi-tranche lender group comprised export credit agencies from Japan, Korea and Canada, multilateral lenders from Europe and Africa and an international syndicate of nine commercial banks.
The project is a large-tonnage mining enterprise in Madagascar producing high-grade nickel and cobalt used in, among other things, EV batteries.
On November 26, 2024, Mr. Justice Hildyard of the High Court of England & Wales sanctioned the heavily amended RP with the support of three of the four creditor classes, with the sole dissenting class being “crammed down." Among other things, the RP discharges approximately US$2 billion of debt in return for upfront cash settlement payments and a deferred payment arrangement, thereby making the RP one of the most ambitious restructuring plans under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 since their introduction in 2020.
Team leader Andrew Pendleton commented: “In a dire nickel market, the prospect of an insolvent liquidation with total write-down has hung over the project through an incredibly challenging period of negotiations. We are very proud to have achieved a 250% plus uplift on the exit payment offered to lenders, the prospect of a healthy further return if the nickel market improves and the preservation of over 10,000 high-quality jobs in Madagascar.”
Mr. Pendleton was supported by, among others, partners Nick Dunstone, David Gartside and Aled Davies, and associates Anthony Scott, Diana Dai, Henry Morris, Kei Kitatani, Michaël Tiralongo and Eugene Tan. The Milbank team worked alongside Richard Fisher KC and Henry Phillips of South Square chambers as Counsel to the lenders and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as financial advisers to the lenders.
