Ashurst advised partners from Zolfo Cooper,  the world’s pre-eminent advisory and interim management firm, on their role as administrators in the sale of the assets of Weather Finance III (WFIII) including all the shares in WIND Hellas Telecommunications, a leading Greek telecoms company.

This marks the successful conclusion of strategic alternatives process launched by WF III on 1 July 2010 which led to the selection on 18 October of a consortium of senior secured noteholders as the preferred bidder.

The new owners invested €420 million on the closing of this transaction in order to repay debt and fund WIND Hellas’ long term development and business plan.  This transaction resulted in WIND Hellas being legally released from €1,867 million of third party debt.

The Ashurst team was led by restructuring partners Dan Hamilton and Giles Boothman. Senior associate Luke Rollason, associate Ru-Woei Foong and others from Ashurst’s restructuring and special situations group also advised on the matter.

The transaction involved particularly complicated arrangements including a UK scheme of arrangement and the administration of six Luxembourg holding companies. Ashurst played a key role in the process as advisors to the administrators who implemented the sale to the senior secured noteholders. This comes on top of a very busy year for Ashurst’s restructuring team who have also advised on The Gala Coral restructuring and The Panrico restructuring. Ashurst has therefore had leading roles on three out of the top seven LBO restructurings of 2010.