Ardagh Group - comment
The termination of discussions between the SUNs and Ardagh Group is bad news for the SUNs. Ardagh looks to have rejected the latest SUN's counterproposal and is moving on with the restructuring. Ardagh Group will need to restructure via a Chapter 11 process (although it could utilise England or other EU jurisdictions), if agreement with the SUNs holders cannot be reached. The SUNs are likely to be crammed down in any process given where the value in the structure breaks. There are likely to be a few more twists in the saga.
The latest SUN counterproposal contained some interesting tweaks, the most interesting was that the SSN group provided $1.2bn super senior ($400m is cash for GCP, with the other $800m to repay the Apollo loan at the AIHS level) would be replaced by $500m in new money from the SUNs alongside a separate $800m loan to Ardagh Investments to repay the Apollo loan. The $500m loan would have had security over the Trivium asset, amongst other collateral.