A combined team from Dechert’s London and Almaty offices has advised the Steering Committee of international creditors of JSC Alliance Bank, a Kazakhstan based bank, in connection with the restructuring of US$1.3 billion of its financial indebtedness.
The restructuring, which was effected by a Kazakh court-approved scheme together with English law noteholder approval procedures for each existing series of notes, involved the cancellation of the Bank’s existing notes in exchange for a combination of cash, equity entitlements (including in the form of GDRs) and new notes due 2024. The restructuring was conditional upon, among other matters, the completion of the acquisition by the Bank of Temirbank and Forte Bank. Under an exchange mechanism provided by the restructuring plan, certain creditors were given the option to elect to exchange all, or a portion, of their equity entitlements for the new notes and vice versa. Term sheet negotiations between the Bank and the Committee commenced in April 2014 and the restructuring date occurred on December 15, 2014. To date, entitlements have been issued to approximately 75% of all noteholders.
Camille Abousleiman led the Dechert team advising the Steering Committee, assisted by fellow partners Giles Belsey (London) and Victor Mokrousov (Almaty) and associates Jennifer Buckett (London) and Roman Nurpeissov (Almaty).
Houlihan Lokey acted as financial adviser to the Steering Committee. Lazard Frères acted as financial advisers to Alliance Bank and White & Case acted as legal advisers to Alliance Bank.
In addition to the above transaction, Dechert’s London-based emerging markets team has also recently advised on several major capital markets transactions in Kazakhstan, including the issuances of US$500 million 4.875% Notes due 2025 and US$1 billion 6.00% Notes due 2044 by JSC National Company KazMunayGas (the national oil and gas company of Kazakhstan) and the consent solicitation and issuer substitution by JSC Kazkommertsbank (the largest bank, by total assets, in Kazakhstan).
Source: www.dechert.com
