Matteo Clarkson-Maciel serves as part of the Banking & Specialty Finance and Restructuring & Insolvency Groups at Cassels, and is a member of the Liability Management & Special Situations team. Matteo advises across the debt spectrum, from complex event-driven transactions, including liability management, special situations, restructurings, and other hybrid capital or distressed credit opportunities to Canadian counsel on cross border financings involving Canadian subsidiaries. His work spans matters featuring both private debt and high-yield bonds. Matteo has extensive experience advising clients on novel situations requiring unique strategies or innovative solutions. He has been involved in several market-leading European and Canadian deals involving lending, liability management exercises, lender-on-lender violence, distressed private credit, restructuring plans, and pure-play wind-down bankruptcies. His work often involves cross-border and multi-jurisdictional elements and is instructed by clients and lead counsel representing clients across the whole stakeholder spectrum, including distressed companies, special situations lenders, distressed debt investors, and insolvency practitioners.
Matteo’s notable experience has included:
Liability Management & Special Situations
- Various Canadian private credit funds on various financing structures.
- The Unsecured Creditor Committee for Scandinavian Airways on its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, its European implementation and transaction structuring addressing European Union state subsidy issues.*
- An ad hoc group of bondholders to a UK-based pub group on their participation in a private credit asset disposition and the pub group’s wider refinancing.*
- An ad hoc group of bondholders to French supermarket chain Casino through a consent solicitation and French Sauvegarde.*
- Various hedge funds and issuers in respect of high-yield note structuring for liability management transactions, including drop-downs, uptiers, asset sales, and consent solicitations.*
Restructuring
- Alvarez & Marsal in its role as court-appointed manager over syndicated collateral assets of the Pride Group Holdings companies.
- LoyaltyOne in its CCAA proceeding.
- Lifeways Group — an OMERS portfolio company and the UK’s largest care home provider — on a debt recapitalization and operational restructuring. The first English plan to cram-down creditor classes that did not participate in voting.*
- The insolvency practitioners of Global Brands Group on a 21-jurisdiction restructuring and loan rationalization, culminating in the disposal of a joint venture to Creative Artists.*
- DeepOcean on the first cross-class cram down restructuring in England — winner of legal business deal of the year.*
- PizzaExpress on its operational and financial restructuring and partial debt for equity swap.*
- AllSaints on a English voluntary arrangement with the first CCAA recognition of a English plan to compromise landlord rights.*
- A Canadian airport kiosk retailer on an operational restructuring following COVID-19.*
Finance
- Banijay on a €2.2bn bank-bond financing to acquire Endemol Shine.*
- Various sponsors on financings for US-based energy projects.*
- Sponsors and lenders in various European football financings.*
- Lone Star Funds on the financing of its €1bn acquisition of Stark Group.*
- A composite cookware portfolio company on a US$147m senior credit facility refinancing syndicated by Canadian banks.*
Prior to joining Cassels, Matteo practiced as an associate in the London offices of Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He previously worked deal-side at an energy & infrastructure-focused sponsor and advised sponsors of football financings.
Representations denoted with an asterisk were completed prior to joining Cassels.
