Davis Polk advised Technicolor S.A. (formerly Thomson) in connection with its debt restructuring, allowing Technicolor to reduce its outstanding senior debt by 45% (from approximately €2.9 billion to €1.5 billion) pursuant to its Sauvegarde plan, approved by the Commercial Court of Nanterre on February 17, 2010.

The final stage of the restructuring consisted of a rights issue of approximately €348 million, or 527 million shares. The gross proceeds from the rights issue were paid to senior creditors as partial repayment of their existing debt claims. The new shares that were not subscribed during the rights offering were backstopped by Technicolor’s senior creditors by way of set-off of their debt claims.

In addition, approximately €638 million of notes redeemable in shares were issued to Technicolor’s senior creditors, of which approximately 12 million were acquired by existing shareholders through the exercise of warrants.

With headquarters in Issy les Moulineaux, France, Technicolor is a world-leading provider of solutions for the creation, management, delivery and access of video for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Its business includes the Technicolor brand of products and services, which provides a full range of production, post-production and network services for studios, independent filmmakers and television producers.

The Davis Polk corporate and finance team was led by partners Arnaud Pérès of the Paris office and Jeffrey R. O’Brien of the London office and included partner Andrés V. Gil and associates Thomas Bourdeaut, Juliette Loget and Amy T. Alter and law clerks Quentin Durand and Charlotte Beatrice Ebert of the Paris office, and associates Reuven B. Young, Shih-Jern Liang and Tiaan Schreuder and legal assistant Tim Greenwell of the London office. Associate Catherine L. Martin of the New York office provided 1940 Act advice.