HEADLINES

High yield bond and leveraged loan issuance for restructurings across the United States and Western and Southern Europe has climbed 65% year-on-year, up from US$29.1 billion for the first nine months of 2019 to US$48 billion over the same period this year.

On 12 June 2019, after a tense meeting with landlords and creditors, the company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) proposed by the Arcadia Group Ltd (Arcadia) were approved by the requisite majority of creditors, allowing the group to restructure its balance sheet and stave off, at least for the time being, a liquidation or administration proceeding.

Arcadia's decline

Sports Direct International plc's last-minute offer to buy substantially all of the assets of House of Fraser out of administration is the latest example of a pre-packaged administration being used to rescue a failing business and continue it as a going concern.

The House of Fraser pre-pack sale to Sports Direct, the British retail group headed by Mike Ashley, was announced almost immediately after House of Fraser entered into administration, and included a transfer of its UK stores, the brand and all of its stock and employees.