
Seán maintains a broad corporate insolvency, financial restructuring and distressed M&A practice.
His work involves advising in diverse distressed and recovery situations in the restructuring and insolvency space, acting for insolvency practitioners / office holders, credit funds, clearing banks, corporate borrowers and the boards and shareholders of corporate debtors experiencing financial difficulties, at all stages of the cycle.
He is dual English and Irish qualified, with a wide range of sectoral experience in both jurisdictions, including in financial services, retail, hospitality, real estate, energy, infrastructure, and offshore (amongst others).
Experience
- Adviser to HSBC as the secured lender to the Jamies' Italian Group of companies over the course of six months in the context of the refinancing, restructuring, and ultimate insolvent administration of the restaurant group
- Advising the hold-out 'pellet supplier' in the context of the financial restructuring (by way of restructuring plan) of the 299MW Tees Renewable Energy Plant, the world’s largest pellet biomass power plant
- Counsel to FRP as conflict Administrators of portfolio investments entities in the strategic market research space, and leading on the delivery of a pre-packaged sale of business and assets in Administration to existing secured creditors, and positioning legacy debt behind in the Old Co structure
- Adviser to the secured lender on their lending exposure to, enforcement against, and ultimate fixed charge receivership and exit from a £45,000,000 exposure to a prominent real estate asset and hotel concern in London’s East End
- Advising PWC as the Administrators of Lehman Brothers Limited in the context of Lehman group subordinated lender and noteholder distribution disputes in the High Court.
- Counsel to the club of secured lenders to Caffè Nero: leading on advices to the banking syndicate for the Caffè Nero group in the context of a CVA and the financial restructuring of syndicate exposures
- Advising NatWest on the lender’s exit from its exposure to the distressed ‘Spectrum’ telecoms group via a debt notation, take out of hedging and agency positions, pre-packaged sale via a credit bid, and anti-embarrassment wrapper
- Counsel to the board of directors of a prominent premium restaurant delivery service start-up in respect of their duties as directors in the face of financial stress pending a successful solvent acquisition of the group
- Advising the special situations fund Cyrus Capital on the conversion of its listed bond debt exposure to the insolvent former Stobart Group parent, Esken, into a strategic equity stake in the London South End Airport holding subsidiary
- Counsel to Alvarez and Marsal as share charge receivers to the shares in The Mole Clinic in the context of the failure of the wider SkN group of companies
- Confidential advice to a leading special situations fund on the cross border financial restructuring of their loan-on-loan exposure to a hotel group, involving the use of debt documentation levers, credit bidding and share enforcement to solve for an underlying shareholder JV shareholder dispute
- Advising Teneo as the Administrators of one the UK’s largest business continuity, IT, co-location and data centre providers in the context of its trading administration and the sale of its business and assets
- Counsel to PwC as Joint Administrators of Steelmin, a Swiss and Bosnian steel fabrication group, and leading on the pre-packaged sale of the business and assets of that company, involving complex debt assumption mechanics and a cross border structure involving four European jurisdictions.