Morrison & Foerster advised the official committee of unsecured creditors of Valaris plc ("Valaris") and its affiliated debtors in connection with its chapter 11 cases and parallel UK administration proceeding. Valaris Limited, the new holding company of the Valaris Group, announced today (May 3, 2021) that on April 30, 2021 the group had successfully completed its financial restructuring and emerged from chapter 11. The group provides offshore drilling services to the international oil and gas industry and operates one of the largest fleets in the industry. In its first day filings, Valaris listed total assets of approximately $13 billion and total debts of approximately $7.85 billion.
The financial restructuring was effected by way of a UK administration proceeding and pre-pack sale. The sale involved a series of transactions that resulted in the sale of substantially all of Valaris's assets to a new holding structure. Valaris Limited, the parent of the new holding structure is now owned by the unsecured creditors of Valaris, as set out in the chapter 11 plan of reorganization. The plan was approved and confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on March 3, 2021. Valaris Limited now moves forward with a strengthened capital structure, eliminating $7.1 billion of debt, and securing a $520 million capital injection by issuing $550 million of new secured notes maturing in 2028. As of April 30, 2021, Valaris Limited had $615 million of available cash, $40 million of restricted cash, and $550 million of debt.
The cross-border MoFo Business Restructuring and Insolvency Group (BRIG) deal team was led in New York by Lorenzo Marinuzzi, global co-chair of BRIG, together with Jennifer Marines, also global co-chair of BRIG, and associates Raff Ferraioli, Aarti Gupta, and Katherine Richardson Arnould. The London BRIG deal team was led by Howard Morris, head of BRIG in London, together with of counsel Amrit Khosa, associate Jai Mudhar, and trainee solicitors Joe Donaghey and Haania Amir.