Table of Contents. About the Author... vii Table of Chapters... ix Preface... xxiii. Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Players...

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1 Table of Contents About the Author... vii Table of Chapters... ix Preface... xxiii Chapter 1 Introduction :1 What Is Corporate Finance, and Why This Book :2 What This Book Covers :3 What This Book Doesn t Cover :4 Caveat... 4 Chapter 2 The Players :1 The Company Perspective :1.1 Debt Versus Equity :1.2 Short-Term or Long-Term Debt :1.3 Illiquidity Versus Insolvency :1.4 Matching Liabilities to Assets; Managing Maturities :1.5 Market Conditions :1.6 Fixed-Rate Financing and Call Protection :1.7 Short-Term Pricing with Medium-Term Assurance of Access to Funds Through a Backstop :1.8 Nature of the Business :1.9 Maturity of the Business :1.10 Where Does the Company s Cash Come From? :1.11 Implications for Lawyers :2 Investors and Intermediaries :2.1 Individual and Institutional Investors in the Public or Quasi-Public Markets; Underwriters and Placement Agents :2.2 Banks and Other Lenders in the Bank Loan and Private Placement Markets xi

2 DRAFTING FOR CORPORATE FINANCE 2:2.3 Competition and Consolidation in the Banking Industry :2.4 Implications for Lawyers :3 Exchanges, Regulators and Industry Associations :3.1 Another Kind of Liquidity; Trading and Exchanges :3.2 Primary Regulators and Self-Regulatory Organizations :3.3 Industry Associations :3.4 Implications for Lawyers :4 Ancillary Players :4.1 Providers of Trustee and Administrative Services :4.2 Rating Agencies :4.3 Accountants :4.4 Financial Printers :4.5 Lawyers :5 The Evolving Market; Hedge Funds and Private Equity; Derivatives :5.1 The Status Quo Ante :5.2 Change Happens :5.3 Private Equity and Leveraged Buyouts :5.4 Hedge Funds :5.5 Derivatives, and Credit Derivatives in Particular :5.6 Playing a Game of Catch-Up :6 The M&A Connection :6.1 Financial Engineering and Financial Buyers :6.2 Assessment of the Target Company Debt :6.3 The Acquisition Debt :6.4 Bridge Loans, PIK, Staple or Stapled Financing... Innovation Is the Rule :6.5 Implications for Lawyers...41 Chapter 3 The Instruments :1 Review of the Basic Terms :1.1 Scheduled Maturity; Mandatory Repayment; Optional Repayment; and Call Versus Non-Call :1.2 Yield and Coupon; Yield and Price; Accrual; Fixed Rate Versus Floating Rate; Margin and Spread...45 xii

3 Table of Contents 3:1.3 Rating :2 Plain Vanilla Finance :2.1 Common Stock :2.2 Preferred Stock :2.3 Convertible Debt :2.4 Commercial Paper :2.5 Bank Debt Revolving Credits :2.6 Bank Debt Letters of Credit :2.7 Bank Debt Term Loans :2.8 Private Placement Debt :2.9 Public or Rule 144A Debt :3 Complex Finance :3.1 Structured Finance :3.2 Derivatives :3.3 Financial Engineering and Rule Arbitrage; Issues for Lawyers Chapter 4 Accounting Matters :1 Financial Statements :2 The Balance Sheet and What s Not on It :3 The Income Statement; LIFO and FIFO :4 EBITDA :5 How the Financial Statements Fit Together :6 Consolidation; Minority Interests; Equity Accounting :7 Interplay of Consolidation Concerns and Off-Balance-Sheet Financing :8 How Financial Statements and Financial Reality Can Diverge Chapter 5 Bankruptcy Rules of the Endgame :1 Priorities of Recovery :2 Fraudulent Conveyance :3 Preference xiii

4 DRAFTING FOR CORPORATE FINANCE Chapter 6 The Issuer and the Obligation: Recourse, Ranking, Rights, and Remedies :1 Identify the Obligor :1.1 Who s on the Hook? :1.2 What s in a Name? :1.3 What Type of Legal Entity? :1.4 What Is Non-Recourse Financing? :2 Debt or Equity or Something Else? :3 Secured or Unsecured? :3.1 Benefits of Security :3.2 Terminology; Negative Pledges; Equitable or Constructive Liens :3.3 Nothing Short of Perfection Will Do :3.4 Types of Collateral :3.5 Which Rules Apply? :3.6 Need for Careful Review; Key Defined Terms :3.7 A Note on Stock Pledges :3.8 What About Proceeds? :3.9 Preference Risk :3.10 In a Troubled Credit Situation :3.11 Roles of Collateral Trustee, Custodian, or Servicer :3.12 Sharing Collateral :3.13 Consistency with Debt Agreements; Release of Collateral :4 Senior or Subordinated? :4.1 Subordination Is Contractual, Not an Absolute Priority :4.2 The Payover Provision; Obligations of the Issuer Unaffected :4.3 Definition of Senior Debt; Tiers of Subordinated Debt :4.4 The Credit Agreement Debt :4.5 Designated Senior Debt, Payment Blockage and Delay on Acceleration :4.6 Anti-Layering :4.7 Terms That Can Frustrate Subordination :4.8 Guarantees of Subordinated Debt :4.9 When Subordinated Debt Is Secured; Second Lien Debt :4.10 What Conclusions Can Be Drawn? xiv

5 Table of Contents Chapter 7 Beyond the Issuer: Corporate Structure Issues :1 Structural Subordination and Leakage :1.1 Structural Subordination :1.2 Pledge of Intercompany Loans; Upstream Guarantees :1.3 Stock and Debt of Subsidiaries :2 Subsidiaries Presumptively Within the Credit Group :2.1 Wholly Owned Versus Non-Wholly Owned Subsidiaries; Preferred Stock :2.2 Restricted Versus Unrestricted Subsidiaries :2.3 U.S. Versus Non-U.S. Subsidiaries :2.4 Material or Significant Subsidiaries :2.5 Single-Purpose or Special-Purpose Subsidiaries :3 Non-Subsidiary Affiliates Presumptively Outside the Credit Group :3.1 Upstream Affiliates :3.2 Sisters :3.3 Joint Ventures, Minority Interests, and the Like Chapter 8 Commitments, Conditions, Pricing, and Risk; Liquidity Support and Credit Support; Credit Derivatives :1 Commitments, Conditions, Pricing, and Risk :2 Beyond the Issuer: Analyzing Levels of Credit Support :3 Liquidity Support :4 Credit Support and Credit Substitution :4.1 Guarantees :4.2 Non-Guarantee Credit Support? :4.3 Letters of Credit :4.4 Bond Insurance :4.5 Credit Derivatives? Chapter 9 A Deal in Time :1 The Deal Life Cycle and the Role of the Lawyer :2 Understanding the Company and Its Financing Needs :3 Defining the Market and Instrument xv

6 DRAFTING FOR CORPORATE FINANCE 9:4 Locating and Using Forms and Precedents :5 Preliminary Agreements Term Sheets and Commitment Letters :6 Due Diligence, Detail, and the Preliminary Agreement :7 Drafting and Negotiation :7.1 The Drafting Process :7.2 Golden Rules of Document Drafting and Negotiation :7.3 How to Read a Contract :7.4 Negotiation and the Lawyer s Role :7.5 Common Errors in Decision-Making :8 Closings :8.1 Good Closings :8.2 Typical Documentary Requirements :8.3 Potential Documentation Problems :8.4 Requirements in the International Context :8.5 Related Transactions and Simultaneous Closings :9 Opinions :9.1 Opinions are Hard; Not Just a Word-Processing Exercise :9.2 The Basic Opinion :9.3 Conclusions About Legal Facts :9.4 Security Interest Opinions :9.5 True Sale and 10b-5 Opinions :9.6 Rules to Opine By :10 Post-Closing :10.1 Final Documents and Closing Sets :10.2 Post-Closing: Amendments, Waivers, and Questions of Interpretation (When to Call a Lawyer) Chapter 10 Contract Structure and Key Elements :1 Overview :2 Title, Date, and Parties; References to Other Contracts :3 Successors and Assigns? :4 Conditions Precedent :5 The MAC Clause, Material Litigation, and Incipient Events of Default xvi

7 Table of Contents 10:6 Representations and Warranties :6.1 Representations as Hidden Covenants :6.2 Representations About the Unknown: Who Bears the Risk? :6.3 Misrepresentation Versus Inability to Make a Representation :7 Covenants :7.1 Affirmative Covenants, Negative Covenants, and Financial Covenants :7.2 Maintenance Versus Incurrence Tests :7.3 Principles of Covenant Design and Analysis :7.4 Related Definitions: How Important Are They? :8 Defaults :8.1 Default Versus Event of Default :8.2 Acceleration; The Ipso Facto Clause :8.3 Cross-Defaults :8.4 Judgment and Lien Defaults :9 General or Miscellaneous Terms :10 Definitions :11 Who s Covered? :12 How Do the Provisions Work Together? Chapter 11 Housekeeping, Insurance, and Information Covenants :1 Good Housekeeping :2 Insurance Covenants :3 Information Covenants Chapter 12 Debt and Liens (Negative Pledges) :1 The Negative Pledge (Restriction on Liens) :2 The Construction of Negative Covenants :3 Equal and Ratable Clauses :4 Restrictions on Sale-Leasebacks :5 Restrictions on Negative Pledges :6 Debt Covenants :7 Restrictions on Debt of Subsidiaries :8 The Priority Debt Package xvii

8 DRAFTING FOR CORPORATE FINANCE Chapter 13 General Business Covenants :1 Purposes :1.1 Preserving the Identity of the Obligor and the Source of Repayment :1.2 Reducing Risk :1.3 Controlling the Use of Cash :2 By Type of Transaction or Activity :2.1 Mergers and Asset Sales :2.2 Restricted Payments :2.3 Investments :2.4 Line of Business :2.5 Capital Expenditures :2.6 Acquisitions? :2.7 Leases :2.8 Guarantees and Contingent Obligations :2.9 Assignment of Receivables :2.10 Transactions with Affiliates :2.11 Other :3 Constructing a Multi-Covenant Basket :4 Cross-References to Ensure Consistent Treatment :5 Change of Control Provisions and Definitions Chapter 14 Financial Covenants :1 Lawyers Should Not Be Afraid of Financial Covenants :2 Correcting Toward Cash and Fair Value :3 Maintenance Versus Incurrence Tests (Again); Historical Versus Adjusted or Pro Forma :4 Coverage Versus Balance Sheet Tests; Timing Questions :5 Coverage Tests :5.1 The Numerator :5.2 EBIT and EBITDA :5.3 The Denominator :5.4 Depreciation and Capital Expenditures :6 Leverage Ratio of Debt to Cash Flow :7 Balance Sheet Tests :7.1 Net Worth :7.2 Balance Sheet Leverage Test xviii

9 Table of Contents 14:8 Minimum Operating Results :9 Liquidity and Working Capital Tests :10 Excess Cash Flow Sweeps Chapter 15 Amendments, Waivers, and Control Provisions :1 Amendments and Waivers :1.1 Level of Consent Required :1.2 Can the Obligor Vote? :1.3 Multi-Series or Multi-Tranche Agreements :1.4 Banks and Bondholders That Do Not Go Along :2 Amendment Versus Waiver; Form of Amendment :3 Shared Collateral; Intercreditor Agreements; Standstill Agreements :4 Analyzing Control Provisions :4.1 A Common Apparent Anomaly :4.2 Trading of Loans and Bonds, and the Relevance to Control :4.3 How to Review Control Provisions Chapter 16 Risk-Based Review; Transactions Analysis :1 Spend Your Time Wisely :2 How to Deal with Boilerplate and Other Standard Provisions :3 Recommendations and Questions for Risk-Based Review :3.1 Party and Client Identification :3.2 Correspondence to Term Sheet :3.3 Closing Documents; Disclosure Schedules; Side Agreements; the Closing Set :3.4 Opinions :3.5 Timing, Risk, Commitments, and Conditions; Continuing or Repeating Representations :3.6 Complex Calculations and Tax Provisions :3.7 Security :3.8 Interrelatedness and Consistency Generally Within the Financing xix

10 DRAFTING FOR CORPORATE FINANCE 16:3.9 How Different Financings Work Together :3.10 Credit Support or Liquidity Support? :3.11 Covenants Dealing with Securitization and Derivatives :3.12 Definition of the Corporate Group; Definitions of Affiliates and Control :3.13 Adverse Developments Stress Testing :3.14 M&A Scenarios :3.15 Maintaining Flexibility: Amendments, Waivers, and Refinancing Options :4 Transactions Analysis at the Margin Chapter 17 Best Practices :1 Drafting As a Professional Skill :1.1 Cross-References :1.2 Consequential and Conforming Changes :1.3 Working with Precedent :1.4 Excessive Generality and Too Much Specificity; Over-Engineering :1.5 Identifying and Correcting Ambiguity; Vagueness :1.6 Logical Completeness and Correctness; Speculative Worlds? :1.7 Over-Drafting :1.8 Too Many Words :1.9 Good Definitions :1.10 Provisions in Related Documents :1.11 Lists :2 Drafting Disclosure of Contract Terms :2.1 Where the Contract Is Relevant but Is Not the Main Event :2.2 For the Selling Document for the Debt :2.3 In Regular Disclosure for Public Companies? :3 Levering Technology Possibilities and Pitfalls; Documents Handling and Retention :4 Lessons of Enron :5 Stay Informed, Be Engaged, Live Long, and Prosper xx

11 Table of Contents Appendix A Notes and Resources Appendix B Technical Drafting Checklist Appendix C Indicative Terms for Bank Debt and Public Debt, Investment Grade Versus Non-Investment Grade Appendix D Newco Goes to Wall Street 8½ Balance Sheets Appendix E Diary of a Liquidity Crisis: Enron s Last Days xxi

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