Bracewell Represents Creditors in Chapter 11 Proceedings Regarding Ahern Rentals, Inc.

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP represented a Noteholder Group that included Del Mar Master Fund Ltd.; Feingold O’Keeffe Capital, LLC; Nomura Corporate Research & Asset Management Inc.; Och-Ziff Capital Management Group; Sphere Capital, LLC - Series B; and Wazee Street Capital Management, LLC with regard to the Chapter 11 filing of Ahern Rentals, Inc. (Ahern).

Bracewell’s clients owned 90% of the $267.7 million of second lien notes issued by Ahern and formed an informal Noteholder Group to protect their interests in the bankruptcy case.

Bracewell successfully persuaded the Bankruptcy Judge not to extend the Debtor’s exclusive right to propose a plan of reorganization, thereby allowing the Noteholder Group to file and solicit its own plan of reorganization. Bracewell then successfully defended the Noteholder Group’s exclusivity victory in a series of emergency appeals filed by the Debtor before the Nevada federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Simultaneous with the defeat of Ahern’s exclusivity appeals, Bracewell prepared and executed a comprehensive litigation plan focused on defeating confirmation of the Debtor’s plan of reorganization and obtaining confirmation of the Noteholder Group’s plan. Bracewell’s strategy succeeded in unsettling the entrenched, family-owned and controlled company and its non-debtor affiliates, allowing for a favorable, consensual restructuring of the second lien debt shortly before trial. In contrast to the Debtor’s plan, which sought to force the Noteholder Group to wait five years for repayment, the consensual plan provided noteholders with a recovery of $267.7 million in cash and contingent value rights to an additional $25 million payment under certain circumstances.

Bracewell attorneys involved in this representation included Partners Robert G. Burns, Daniel S. Connolly and Rachel B. Goldman; and Associates David J. Ball and Mark E. Dendinger