18 November 2004 – LAWFUEL – Law, legal, attorney news – Shearman & Sterling represented Mastellone Hermanos S.A., Argentina’s largest dairy company, in a successful private exchange offer to restructure its debt. In March 2002, Mastellone Hermanos defaulted on its outstanding bonds and unsecured bank debt. In the exchange offer, the company offered cash, new fixed rate bonds and/or new floating rate bank debt, at the option of its debt holders, in exchange for its defaulted bonds and bank debt.

In the exchange offer, Mastellone Hermanos received tenders of approximately 97.8% on the outstanding debt. The company purchased $85 million of the tendered debt and exchanged the remainder of it for approximately $237 million in new debt. Due to the strong response from the market to the exchange offer, Mastellone Hermanos elected not to pursue an Argentine prepackaged bankruptcy proceeding with respect to the remaining debt.

Attorneys included partners Larry Bambino (NY-TX) and John Millard (NY-PDF), associates Metin Ismailov (NY-TX) and Catherine Jones (NY-CM), and legal assistant Robert Villa (NY-CM).