Bankruptcy Dealmaker – Marc Abrams, Willkie Farr
Marc Abrams, cochair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s restructuring group, was involved in just the final chapter of Delphi’s bankruptcy. But participants say that he played an outsize role in its emergence.
Abrams was tapped by a group of disaffected postpetition creditors—debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders, in bankruptcy lingo—who stood to lose billions in a deal that Delphi and its largest customer, General Motors, had struck to sell a controlling stake in Delphi to Platinum Equity, LLC. Abrams convinced DIP lenders with widely divergent goals to break free from their historically passive role and take control of the process. In the end, the DIP group actually acquired Delphi out of bankruptcy, a first in a major filing.
The group’s inclusion as a bidder was not assured, say Abrams’s clients. But his argument that GM should not be allowed to squash creditors’ rights hit home with the bankruptcy judge, says Andrew Herenstein, managing principal of a major DIP lender, Monarch Alternative Capital LP. “The government thought our credit bid strategy was a hollow threat,” he says. “Marc came in and convinced the judge that we had a right to do it, and we were going to do it.”
