A Gleiss Lutz team has advised Robus Capital Management (Robus) and Whitebox Advisors (Whitebox) as the owners of Gerry Weber International AG (Gerry Weber) in connection with the agreement of a plan for dealing with the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
As the cornerstone of the plan, Gerry Weber has now received assistance from the majority of its former insolvency creditors in the form of a temporary partial deferment. The creditors approved the plan with a large majority; according to this, they have essentially deferred 35 percent of their claims until 31 December 2023, which would then be paid to them at a later stage. At the same time the so-called plan sponsors, as the owners of the company, have made a binding commitment to give their support as previously announced and are therefore also making considerable contributions to the restructuring of the company, among other things by increasing the working capital credit line.
The plan has become necessary after almost all of the company’s stores were closed as of mid-March 2020 on the instruction of the authorities in order to contain the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, all the stores in Germany are open again.
Gleiss Lutz has assisted with the restructuring and insolvency proceedings of the fashion and lifestyle company right from the start. Initially, the firm advised the ad-hoc group of the promissory note creditors – which included Robus and Whitebox – in the run-up to the insolvency proceedings starting in the autumn of 2018. Gleiss Lutz then advised its clients on an insolvency plan in the context of the self-administered insolvency and on the acquisition of the company.
The following Gleiss Lutz team, led by Dr. Kai-Arne Birke (partner, finance, Frankfurt) and Dr. Matthias Tresselt (partner, restructuring, Stuttgart), advised Robus and Whitebox: Frank Schlobach (partner), Patrick Reuter (both finance, both Frankfurt), Dr. Alexander Nagel (counsel, restructuring, Düsseldorf), Dr. Stephan Aubel (partner), Alexander Gebhardt (counsel, both capital markets, both Frankfurt), Dr. Johannes Otto (restructuring, Stuttgart).
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