Conor O'Brien

Conor is a managing associate in the Linklaters restructuring & insolvency team in London. He has broad cross-border experience, specialising in complex restructuring and insolvency transactions, but with additional experience in leveraged finance, corporate lending, asset finance, and energy and infrastructure. Conor has previously seconded to the firm’s finance and banking practices in Hong Kong and Madrid. He is a qualified solicitor in both Ireland and England & Wales.

Work highlights

Deal experience and career highlights to date include:

• Lecta: advising the group on its recapitalisation, including the injection of c. €90m of new money in the form of tradable notes, the refinancing of a €115m super senior loan facility through a consensual process and the refinancing of €255m+ of senior secured notes through an English law “scheme of arrangement” procedure and a Spanish law homologacion process.

• Naviera Armas: advising on the balance sheet restructuring of the Spanish ferry group, including the restructuring of high-yield bonds as part of a debt for equity swap using a Spanish law homologacion process.

• Haya Real Estate: advising the group on its recapitalisation and the refinancing of its €400m+ senior secured notes through an English law “scheme of arrangement” procedure and a Spanish law homologacion process.

• Arcadia: acting for insolvency practitioners from Interpath Advisory as administrators and CVA supervisors of the entity that owned the flagship Top Shop / Top Man store at 214 Oxford Street, including acting on the sale of the entity to the parent of IKEA Group, the structuring of which included the novel use of a CVA.
• Nordic Aviation Capital: acting for the ad hoc committee of unsecured RCF lenders on the restructuring of approximately US$6 billion of debt owed by the group and implemented by way of a solvent Irish scheme of arrangement and certain bilateral arrangements.

• Gategroup: advising a syndicate of senior lenders to the group in connection with its comprehensive capital restructuring through an English law “restructuring plan” procedure.

• Steinhoff: advising the retail group in relation to their €10bn multi-jurisdictional restructuring.

• Intu Properties Plc: advising the administrators of the group and various core subsidiaries.

• London-based private hire taxi and courier company: advising a syndicate of lenders under a senior facilities agreement in relation to a restructuring of the taxi group.

• The Innovation Group: advising the group on its £500m consensual balance sheet restructuring.

Work highlights continued

• Ted Baker PLC: advising a syndicate of senior lenders to the group in relation to the restructuring of the group’s indebtedness.

• Abengoa: advising the Spanish construction, energy and infrastructure group on its financial restructuring.