Dechert LLP has announced that it advised a committee of bondholders in connection with the financial restructuring of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBBOI). An exchange offer to holders of the tribe’s $122 million 10.25% Senior Notes due 2014, which was launched October 26, 2010, has closed and became effective on November 30. The transaction, which is the first known restructuring of a Native American casino debt, will result in the exchange of $122 million of existing Senior Notes and related unpaid accrued interest for $23 million cash and $40 million in new 9.0% Senior Secured Notes due 2020.
The exchange offer is the culmination of more than a year of negotiations and an agreement that was reached between the tribe and an ad-hoc committee representing bondholders on August 7, 2010. Dechert’s Allan S. Brilliant, Shmuel Vasser, Adam M. Fox and Victor Semah acted as counsel to the ad-hoc committee, which represented $106.5 million, or 87%, of the 10.25% Senior Notes.
