Professional Qualifications

Areas of expertise

Michael has broad experience in insolvency, business restructuring / security enforcement / strategies, banking and financial law.  Michael acts for banks, insolvency practitioners, turnaround specialists and corporates in these areas.

Insolvency

• Advising Insolvency practitioners in their capacities as receivers and liquidators and on all aspects of insolvency law, security, trading and asset disposal. Current examples include acting for receivers of:
  • New Zealand’s largest property development (Kawarau Falls Station)
  • New Zealand’s largest dairy farm receivership (Crafar Farms) 
  • the ABC early childhood learning centres Australian entities on all aspects of the New Zealand subsidiary’s business (not in receivership) (winner of Insolvency and Restructuring Deal of the Year at the ALB Australian Law Awards 2010)
  • the management company and related company of an Auckland based  five star hotel operated by the Westin

Bank workouts

• Advising Banks on insolvent and insolvent restructuring/workouts, selling distressed debt and security, security enforcement and recovery strategies. Current examples include:
  • Advising a secured party in relation to its security position over the assets operated by Hilton in Denarau, Fiji;
  • Acting for a Bank in a complicated leasehold restructure and work out
  • Acting for a Bank in devising a security structure which assisted a developer sell apartments

Property Finance

• Acting for a number of New Zealand's major trading banks, Australian trading banks, subordinated lenders (also from New Zealand and Australia) and investment funds on project / construction and investment finance transactions. The transactions often involved complicated corporate structures and commercial arrangements, unusual security structures (for example the use of unlimited liability companies), and multiple parties (for example, contractors, developers, banks, subordinated lenders, councils and presale purchasers)
• Syndicated Loans - Acting for Banks / subordinated lenders on syndicated loans
• Drafting Standard Documentation - Drafting Bank standard documentation
• Acting for Corporate Borrowers - Advising corporate borrowers on banking and finance transactions and related issues
• Advising unsecured creditors
• Acting for UK based creditors in the Wall Group (PRG) Limited Creditors Voluntary Agreement
• Advised creditors' committees of Federal Mogul Global Inc. (one of the largest automotive vehicle parts" manufacturers in the US and Europe (144 companies were subject to administration and Chapter 11), listed on the New York Stock Exchange)- work included: advising on the existing and reorganised corporate structure of the group; drafting and reviewing scheme of arrangement and plan of reorganisation documentation; advising on the English administration and scheme of arrangement procedure and all English law aspects of the global rescue plan; member of the first creditors" committee for the first Voluntary Administration in New Zealand

International recognition