Matteo Clarkson-Maciel is a member of the Liability Management & Special Situations team and part of the Banking & Specialty Finance and Restructuring & Insolvency Groups at Cassels. He advises on out-of-court restructurings, liability management exercises, and special situations involving liquidity or refinancing issues, European or US capital structures, and complex legal constraints. He favours options where the best outcome is not obvious from the documents alone and value turns on reframing the problem — work he approaches from the same commercial and economic perspective as his clients.
Matteo acts as Canadian counsel to international law firms and their clients on cross-border financings and restructurings — particularly those with European or English-law elements — and advises companies, credit funds, hedge funds, and creditors on Canadian-related liability management exercises, distressed investments, CCAA restructurings, and cross-border insolvency proceedings. Having practised in the London offices of Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher and qualified in England & Wales, Ontario, and Alberta, he brings a comparative perspective to Canadian restructuring matters, particularly those involving high-yield debt or exotic or multi-jurisdictional structures.
Matteo is the editor of LexisNexis Butterworths’ Liability Management Exercises: Law and Practice (2026), the first legal text on LMEs in England, the US, or Canada. He is also published with OUP and JFIBL. His writings often examine how parties use legal architecture and capital structures to solve problems in stressed situations.
Matteo’s notable public experience has included:
Liability Management & Special Situations
- Various international and Canadian-based private credit funds on financing and liability management structuring in private notes, syndicated facilities, and multi-debt structures.
- Certain credit fund investors on the exit consent and uptier exchange of a Canadian bond issuer.
- A group of venture capital investors on a proposed distressed acquisition and debt-for-equity transaction through a reverse vesting order.
- 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.
- The Unsecured Creditors’ 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 Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub business, on their participation in a private credit drop-down asset disposition transaction and the pub group’s wider £1.2 billion refinancing.*
- An ad hoc group of bondholders to French supermarket chain Casino through a consent solicitation and French Sauvegarde.*
Restructuring
- A private asset management firm on a DIP financing as part of a real estate developer’s CCAA proceedings.
- Monette Farms, the largest privately owned farming conglomerate in Western Canada, on its $100 million DIP financing, orderly wind-down, and CCAA proceedings to deleverage and refinance its $950 million cov-lite secured debt facilities.
- Several large Canadian private credit lenders on debtor receiverships.
- Hilco as liquidator on the Hudson’s Bay Company CCAA proceeding.
- Alvarez & Marsal in its role as court-appointed manager over syndicated collateral assets of the Pride Group Holdings companies.
- LoyaltyOne (AIR MILES) 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 60+ jurisdiction restructuring and loan rationalization, culminating in the disposal of multiple material joint venture interests.*
- DeepOcean on the first cross-class cram-down Part 26A restructuring plan 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 an English company voluntary arrangement with the first CCAA recognition of an English plan to compromise landlord rights.*
- A Canadian airport kiosk retailer on an operational restructuring following COVID-19.*
Finance
- Bank of Nova Scotia on its DIP financing to STS Renewables as part of its CCAA proceedings.
- A leading UK-based special situations investor on an asset-based financing to a BC-based HR marketing consultant.
- Apera, Barclays, and Alter Domus on Canadian law aspects of Sorrento Midco’s senior multicurrency revolving credit facility financing.
- Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Mizuho on Canadian law aspects of Outbrain’s $1.7 billion bank-bond financing to acquire Teads.
- An aircraft specialist financier on a distressed sale of a lessee’s aircraft to a third-party purchaser.
- Various Canadian private credit lenders on collateral enforcements.
- 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$147 million senior credit facility refinancing syndicated by Canadian banks.*
Representations denoted with an asterisk were completed prior to joining Cassels.
