International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised Bahrain Development Bank (BDB), as a junior creditor, on the c. USD 1,000,000,000 restructuring of JBF RAK, a multinational plastics manufacturer forming part of the listed Indian polyester manufacturing group JBF Industries Limited, via a UAE on-shore restructuring plan. A multi-jurisdiction team comprising of London, Oman, Malaysia and Bahrain fee-earners advised BDB on the matter.
As part of the matter, we were managing and leading the documentation and negotiation on behalf of BDB for the purpose of settlement of its debts, intercreditor issues with the group of over 35 other creditors of JBF RAK and JBF Bahrain, and security release and creation.
Our role also included providing strategic, commercial yet legally effective advice to BDB to balance their commercial interest in the wider restructuring scheme. Aside, we were also tasked to look at the commercial disputes element of the court proceedings and its impact on the wider restructuring scheme. The matter is extremely challenging due to the various elements of complexities and involvement of multi-jurisdictional issues across the UK, Belgium, Bahrain, the UAE, India and Cayman Islands. Clifford Chance acted as the International counsel advising Senior Lenders, BSA acted as the Bahrain local counsel advising Senior Lenders and Fieldfisher acted as the International counsel advising JBF.
The interests of the junior creditors have to be carefully protected against those of the senior creditors to ensure it is a commercially viable deal for them – therefore, managing the negotiations on commercial aspects to help BDB achieve their commercial intentions without compromising the legal positions is key to the matter.
This restructuring is one of the largest in the GCC region and the largest ever in the UAE onshore courts.
