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Bankruptcy Court Credit Agreements

Goulston & Storrs PC

Rethinking Liability Management in Club Deals and Direct Lending: Lessons from the Fifth Circuit’s Serta Ruling and Beyond

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On December 31, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Court”) struck down the controversial 2020 “uptier transaction” executed by Serta Simmons Bedding (“Serta”). The Serta case and several other state court and...more

WilmerHale

Serta’s (Un)Surprising Take on Equitable Mootness

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In its New Year’s Eve decision in Serta Simmons Bedding, the Fifth Circuit underscored the importance of drafting debt documents with clarity and precision and cautioned against borrowers’ reliance on ambiguous language to...more

Jones Day

Business Restructuring Review Vol. 24, No. 2 | March–April 2025

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Fifth circuit rules that serta simmons uptier violated credit agreement, rejects equitable mootness as bar to review of chapter 11 plan confirmation order and excises plan indemnification provision...more

Jones Day

Fifth Circuit Rules that Serta Simmons Uptier Violated Credit Agreement, Rejects Equitable Mootness as Bar to Review of Chapter 11...

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In In re Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, 125 F.4th 555 (5th Cir. 2024), as amended, No. 23-20281 (5th Cir. Jan. 21, 2025), revised and superseded, No. 23-20181 (5th Cir. Feb. 14, 2025), reh'g denied, No. 23-20181 (5th Cir. Feb....more

Seward & Kissel LLP

Fifth Circuit Reverses Bankruptcy Court’s Ruling on Lenders’ Sacred Right of Pro Rata Repayment in Uptiering Transaction

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On December 31, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas’ (the “Bankruptcy Court”) decision that the exchange by certain lenders of Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC...more

DLA Piper

Fifth Circuit Rules that Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC’s 2020 Uptier Transaction Violated Pro Rata Distribution Covenant

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In a landmark ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that a June 2020 refinancing transaction (the Uptier Transaction) entered by Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC (SSB, or the Debtor) and certain of its lenders...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Serta - Fifth Circuit Decision

On December 31, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited decision regarding the permissibility of the Serta Simmons Bedding (Serta) uptier liability management exercise (the 2020 Uptier)...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Latest Uptier Decisions in Serta and Mitel Remind Contract Language Matters

The caselaw on “uptiers” as liability management exercises (LMEs) grew by two opinions on the last day of 2024. In Serta, the Fifth Circuit reversed the bankruptcy court’s blessing of the pre-bankruptcy uptier and...more

Holland & Knight LLP

A Tale of 2 Rulings: Serta, Mitel Cases Remind Why Contract Language Matters in Debt Documents

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has unanimously held that the debt exchange undertaken by Serta Simmons Bedding did not qualify as an "open market purchase" under the terms of Serta's...more

Ropes & Gray LLP

Law Reviews, Dictionaries, and Uptiers: The Fifth Circuit Weighs In on Serta

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Market participants might be wary of opinions that begin with a recitation of academic literature and then turn to dictionaries. The former tend to be authored with an eye toward systemic change rather than direct experience...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Fifth Circuit Rejects Non-Pro Rata Uptier Transaction From Serta Simmons; Landmark Ruling May Have Chilling Effect on Similar...

On December 31, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the Court or the Fifth Circuit) held that the controversial $200 million Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB) uptier financing...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

The End of Non-Pro Rata Uptiers? Fifth Circuit Rules that Serta Exchange was Not an “Open Market Purchase”

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) ruled on December 31, 2024 that Serta Simmons Bedding’s (“SSB”) 2020 uptier exchange included a transaction that, contrary to the assertions of...more

King & Spalding

Texas Bankruptcy Court Significantly Reduces Damages Claims In Connection With Uptier Transaction

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On August 21, 2024, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas held that, while the debtor breached an agreement arising from an uptier transaction, the creditor was limited to a breach of contract claim and...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

Final Ruling in Serta Reaches Decision on “Open Market Purchase”

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Background In November 2016, Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC and certain affiliates (collectively, the “Debtors”) entered into credit facilities which provided for (i) $1.95 billion in first lien term loans (the “2016 Credit...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Texas Bankruptcy Court Approves Serta Simmons “Uptier” Transaction

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The ruling, which held that the transaction did not violate the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, highlights the importance of carefully drafting lending documents. On June 6, 2023, Judge David Jones of the...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Liability Management Litigation Update: Bankruptcy Court Holds That 2020 Serta Transaction Is an 'Open Market Purchase'

Earlier today, Southern District of Texas Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones (the “Court”) issued an oral ruling on motions for summary judgment regarding the propriety of Serta’s 2020 “uptier” liability management transaction...more

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

District Court Upholds Damage Limitations for Lender’s Refusal to Fund: Lyondell Revisited

In the August 2017 issue of Debt Dialogue, we discussed the recent decision by Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York with respect to claims brought by the litigation trust (the...more

King & Spalding

Resolution of Intercreditor Dispute in Favor of ABL Lenders in the RadioShack Bankruptcy Case

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On May 11, 2016, the Delaware bankruptcy court issued an opinion in the RadioShack bankruptcy case addressing an intercreditor dispute between Salus Capital Partners, LLC, the “last out” lender in RadioShack’s prepetition...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

‘LightSquared’: Defining the Permissible Boundaries of Plan Injunctions

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On Oct. 7, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated a plan injunction that had been approved by the Bankruptcy Court in the Chapter 11 cases of LightSquared and certain of its affiliates...more

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