In Short

The Situation: Jones Day recently represented a group of secured term loan and revolver lenders in the global restructuring of syncreon Group B.V. ("syncreon")—a leading provider of logistics services with over 14,000 employees across more than 100 facilities located in 20 countries around the world.

In Redmond v. Jenkins (In re Alternate Fuels, Inc.), 789 F.3d 1139 (10th Cir. 2015), a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld bankruptcy courts’ authority to recharacterize insider debt as equity. In so ruling, the court rejected an argument that recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent prevents bankruptcy courts from using section 105(a) of the Bankruptcy Code to recharacterize debt as equity. Nevertheless, after upholding the recharacterization doctrine, the Tenth Circuit panel split on the doctrine’s application.