FTI Consulting Advises DeepOcean's Secured Lenders on Its Successful Restructuring Plan

The First UK Cross-Class Cram Down

On 13 January 2021, DeepOcean’s Restructuring Plan was sanctioned, and it included the first use of the UK Restructuring Plan cross-class cram down. FTI Consulting advised the secured lenders on this successful and precedent-setting Restructuring Plan.

In this article, our experts Chris Ruell (Senior Managing Director), Lisa Rickelton (Senior Managing Director) and Stewart Federman (Managing Director) provide an overview of the DeepOcean Restructuring Plan.

The purpose of the DeepOcean Restructuring Plan was ultimately to enable the Group’s loss-making Cable Laying and Trenching business (CL&T), largely based in the UK, to be wound down on a solvent basis. The wider DeepOcean Group is headquartered in the Netherlands with its main operations based in Norway provides subsea services for all project phases, from survey and inspection through to decommissioning. The solvent wind down only relates to CL&T.

There were three Plan Companies in the DeepOcean Restructuring Plan: DeepOcean 1 UK Limited (“DO1”), DeepOcean Subsea Cables Limited (“DSC”) and Enshore Subsea Limited (“ES”).

Key aspects of the Plan were a compromise of:

Secured Creditors – by amending terms in accordance with an agreed lock-up;
DO1 UK Vessel Owner Claims – a release in full, and the right to recover vessels, in consideration for an entitlement to receive a distribution (a proportion of Plan Consideration);
DO1 UK Landlords – a release in full, and the right to recover properties, in consideration for an entitlement to receive a distribution; and
Other Plan Creditors (largely comprising trade suppliers and sub-contractors) – also to be released in full in consideration for an entitlement to receive a distribution.