Davis Polk is advising an ad hoc group of prepetition secured term loan lenders and the administrative agent under a prepetition secured term loan facility in the chapter 11 restructuring of Nine West Holdings, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, “Nine West”). On April 6, 2018, the ad hoc lender group entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement with Nine West and certain other parties, which contemplates (i) paying the creditors under the prepetition secured term loan facility in full in cash and (ii) equitizing the claims of the lenders under the prepetition unsecured term loan facility. The RSA is supported by lenders holding more than 78% of the prepetition secured term loan debt and 89% of the prepetition unsecured term loan debt. On April 6, 2018, Nine West filed its voluntary chapter 11 petitions in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The members of the ad hoc group of prepetition secured term loan lenders are also providing, with the other parties to the RSA, a $50 million delayed, multi-draw superpriority debtor-in-possession term loan facility. At the debtors’ “first day” hearing on April 9, 2018, the bankruptcy court approved the DIP term loan facility on an interim basis along with all of the debtors’ other requested first day relief. Davis Polk is advising the administrative agent under the prepetition secured term loan facility in its capacity as the administrative agent under the DIP term loan facility. 

Nine West is a footwear and apparel wholesaler using, among others, the Nine West, Anne Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt trademarks with well-known retail customers including Macy’s, Belk, Lord & Taylor, JCPenney, TJ Maxx, Ross Stores, Steinmart, Kohl’s, Walmart/Sam’s Club and Costco. 

The Davis Polk restructuring team includes partners Marshall S. Huebner, Brian M. Resnick and Darren S. Klein and associates Adam L. Shpeen, Jacob Weiner and Michael Pera. The finance team includes partner Jinsoo H. Kim, counsel Christian Fischer and Benjamin Cheng and associate Phoebe Jin. All members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York office.