Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Monarch Holdings Limited on the completion of its strategic review and restructuring programme and its acquisition by Greybull Capital LLP.
As part of the transaction, Monarch Holdings Limited has secured £125 million of permanent capital and liquidity facilities anchored by a £50 million capital commitment provided by Greybull, together with contributions from the Monarch Group’s prior shareholders, principally the Mantegazza family. Greybull also acquired 90% ownership interest in Monarch, with the remaining 10% to be contributed to the Pension Protection Fund.
The Monarch Group is one of the UK’s leading leisure travel groups, with core activities in scheduled airline operations, tour operations and aircraft engineering. The Monarch Group includes a number of household-name tour operators including Monarch Airlines and Cosmos Holidays.
Freshfields also advised the Monarch Group on the resolution of the Monarch Group’s pension deficit through agreement with the Pensions Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund and the Trustee of the Monarch Airlines Limited Retirement Benefits Plan.
Adam Gallagher, a partner in Freshfields’ restructuring team, commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted to have been able to help Monarch, its management, staff and stakeholders achieve a successful completion of this transformational transaction. These are challenging times for the airline sector but we look forward to seeing Monarch perform to its reinvigorated potential.’
Andrew Swaffield, Monarch Holdings’ Chief Executive Officer, commented: ‘The Freshfields team have been completely committed in supporting Monarch through a challenging time, and have worked closely to assist us in achieving a solution that works for all stakeholders in the Group. I cannot speak highly enough of the whole team, led by Adam Gallagher – they have been outstanding and we could not have completed this transaction without them.”
The Freshfields team was led by finance partner Adam Gallagher and corporate partner Martin Nelson-Jones, alongside pensions partners Dawn Heath and Charles Magoffin, finance partners Catherine Balmond and Robert Murphy and aviation regulatory partner Alan Ryan.
The team worked alongside Monarch Holdings’ Chief Executive Officer Andrew Swaffield and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Lavery.
This deal further demonstrates Freshfields' expertise in the restructuring sector and strong track record in advising clients in the aviation industry. Freshfields recently announced that it had advised Heathrow Airport Holdings on sale of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton Airports and that it advised AerCap on its ILFC acquisition.
Recent complex lender and company-side restructuring mandates include advising on the financial restructurings of NWR, PHS, WRG Group, IVG, Stemcor and Mouchel.
