Simpson Thacher represented The J.G. Wentworth Company and certain of its affiliates (the “Company”) in their Chapter 11 restructuring, which went effective January 25, 2018 after the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware confirmed the Company’s pre-packaged plan of reorganization at a January 17 hearing. After commencing the pre-packaged Chapter 11 cases on December 12, 2017, Simpson Thacher guided the Company through its brief in-court restructuring process, which received approval from 100% of holders of claims and equity interests that voted on the plan. The transaction resulted in lenders extinguishing approximately $449.5 million of their existing term loan debt in exchange for cash consideration and at least 95.5% of the equity in the reorganized Company (subject to dilution for a management incentive plan) with the balance of the new equity distributed to certain existing equity holders and certain holders of other claims. The Company obtained a new secured $70 million revolving credit facility from an existing lender to finance the restructuring and the Company’s ongoing operations.
Headquartered in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, the Company is a provider of direct-to-consumer financing solutions through a variety of avenues, including mortgage lending and refinancing, structured settlement, annuity and lottery payment purchasing, prepaid cards, and access to providers of personal loans.
The Simpson Thacher team included Elisha Graff, Kathrine McLendon, Nicholas Baker, Edward Linden, Randi Lynn Veenstra and Haley Garrett (Restructuring and Bankruptcy); William Curbow, Michael Chao and Scott Rudin (M&A); Christopher Brown, James Doyle, Jim Russell and Mark Haddox (Banking and Credit); Ryan Bekkerus, Arjun Koshal and Ronnie Lim (Capital Markets); Sarah Katz (Tax); Larry Moss (ECEB); and Jennie Getsin (Blue Sky).