Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has advised a consortium of lenders of LEONI AG, a listed cable and wire harness manufacturer headquartered in Germany with operations around the world, in connection with the restructuring of approximately EUR 1.6 billion of debt. The restructuring includes, inter alia, a de-leveraging of more than EUR 700 million and a capital reduction to zero in combination with a subsequent capital increase in favour of a strategic investor. The restructuring, including the capital measures, was successfully implemented through a restructuring plan in accordance with the German Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring of Enterprises (Unternehmensstabilisierungs- und restrukturierungsgesetz - StaRUG). The project is the first major restructuring of a listed company under a StaRUG procedure in Germany. After the appeals filed against the StaRUG restructuring plan were dismissed, it is now legally binding.

The Freshfields team is led by partner Lars Westpfahl (Restructuring, Hamburg), Counsel Nina Heym (Finance, Frankfurt) and Principal Associate Tom Dittmar (Restructuring, Hamburg) and also included partners Martin Schiessl (Tax, Frankfurt), Simon Schwarz (Capital Markets, Frankfurt), Stéphanie Corbière (Finance, Paris), Kyle Lakin (Finance, New York), Dawn Heath (Employment, London) and Counsel Thomas Jeannin (Finance, Paris), Sebastian Röger (Tax, Frankfurt) and Principal Associates Andreas Thümmler (Finance, Vienna), Simon Fitzpatrick (Finance, Vienna) and Gareth Davies (Labour Law, London) as well as the Associates Benedict Kebekus (Restructuring, Hamburg), Laura Korndörfer (Finance, Frankfurt), Alexander Bräuer (Finance, Frankfurt), Andy Esmond (Finance, New York) and Christian Schmidt (Tax, Frankfurt).