Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters and CMS Cameron McKenna landed the key roles when high street retailer Phones4u entered administration last month.
With PwC acting as administrator, the company went into administration on 15 September after the withdrawal of EE, O2 and Vodafone products from its stores, placing nearly 5,596 jobs and more than 700 outlets at risk. However, some stores and staff were relocated with mobile carriers EE and Vodafone, as well as Dixons Carphone purchasing assets.
A&O restructuring and corporate insolvency partner Ian Field is leading the team advising Phones4u alongside the firm’s global restructuring and insolvency group managing partner Mark Sterling.
CC is understood to be advising the lenders of the company’s rolling credit facility with a team led by finance partner Charles Cochrane while CMS Cameron McKenna was mandated by the security trustee, ING Bank, with corporate recovery and restructuring partner Martin Brown advising.
Vodafone turned to Linklaters on its acquisition of 140 stores with a team led by restructuring and insolvency partner Richard Hodgson and including commercial real estate partner Mark Burgess-Smith.
A&O’s Field said: ‘Here we had a situation where the administrators needed to realise assets very quickly to maximise value and preserve as many jobs as possible. But the problem was that the documents did not in practice enable the security trustee or the senior note trustee to act in the timescales that would allow those sales to occur. Therefore the administrators had no option but to go to court to get a release of the fixed-charge security.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk