Latham & Watkins Advises Pacific Drilling in the Completion of its Successful Restructuring
Pacific Drilling S.A. (the Company) has announced that the Company and each of its debtor affiliates have emerged from the Chapter 11 process. The Company filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on October 30, 2020 once reaching a restructuring support agreement with an ad hoc group of secured lenders that paved the way for a consensual restructuring. After a full-day, contested hearing, the Bankruptcy Court confirmed Pacific Drilling’s plan of reorganization (the Plan) on December 21, 2020. Having satisfied all of the conditions to the effectiveness of the Plan, Pacific Drilling successfully completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11 on December 31, 2020. Through the restructuring, Pacific Drilling has eliminated over US$1 billion of secured debt and entered into a new US$80 million senior secured delayed draw term loan exit facility.
Latham & Watkins LLP represented Pacific Drilling S.A. in the completed transaction. The restructuring team was led by New York partners Suzzanne Uhland and George Davis and New York counsel Adam Ravin, with New York associates Christopher Kochman, T.J. Li, Randall Weber-Levine, Christopher Stratigeas, and Isabelle Sawhney, and Chicago associate Asif Attarwala. The corporate team was led by Houston partners Justin Stolte and Trevor Wommack, with Houston associates Ashley Nguyen, Jack Traylor, Hye Lee, Paul Robe, and Whitley Johnson. Advice was also provide on litigation matters by New York partner Christopher Harris, and Chicago partner Heather Waller, with New York associate Elizabeth Morris; on other corporate matters by Washington, D.C. partner Shagufa Hossain and Houston partner Ryan Maierson, with Houston associates Om Pandya, Erin Lee, Anthony Tan and Joseph Kmetz; on tax matters by Houston partners Tim Fenn and Bryant Lee, with Houston associates Jared Grimley and Chelsea Munoz-Patchen; and on benefits and compensation matters by Chicago partner Robin Struve.