Alexander (Alex) Welch

Partner

New York
alex.welch@lw.com
+1.212.906.1289

PRACTICES

  • Restructuring & Special Situations

BAR QUALIFICATIONS

  • New York

EDUCATION

  • JD, Bond University, 2009
  • BA, Queen's University, 2005

PROFILE

Alexander W. Welch represents clients in complex restructurings, liability management, governance, and distressed financings.

Alex has experience advising debtors, creditors, equity holders, sponsors, and other interested parties in a broad array of industries, including:

  • Retail and consumer goods
  • Financial services
  • Technology
  • Energy 
  • Manufacturing 

He has also represented clients in connection with reorganizing, financing, and acquiring distressed companies and assets.

Before joining Latham, Alex was a partner at another global law firm.

EXPERIENCE

Alex’s experience includes representing:

Debtor/Company-Side

  • Carestream Dental, a global leader in digital transformation for the oral healthcare industry, with over US$800 million in debt obligations, in connection with an out-of-court recapitalization transaction resulting in US$525 million of new capital*
  • Mobileum, a leading global provider of telecom analytics and network solutions, in its prepackaged chapter 11 cases, with approximately US$628 million in debt obligations*
  • Regis Corporation, a leader in the haircare industry and franchisor of major salon brands, in connection with:
    • Refinancing its new senior secured credit facility with TCW Asset Management Company and Midcap Financial Trust, including a US$105 million term loan that replaced Regis’ existing debt, reduced outstanding indebtedness by more than US$80 million, and will save approximately US$7 million in cash interest annually, and left public equity holders in place and unimpaired*
    • Its comprehensive US$295 million revolving credit facility amendment*
  • Sunlight Financial Holdings, a leading solar financial services company, and its debtor affiliates in connection with their prepackaged chapter 11 cases and acquisition by a consortium of established investors in the solar financing industry and its senior secured lender*
  • Serta Simmons Bedding, one of the largest mattress manufacturers and distributors in North America, in:
    • Its chapter 11 case, with approximately US$1.9 billion in debt obligations*
    • Its new money priority term loan and exchange transaction, which included US$200 million of new capital and the exchange of approximately US$1 billion in first lien debt and US$300 million in second lien debt, and reduced debt held by participating lenders by over US$400 million*
  • Talen Energy Supply, a power generation and infrastructure company in North America, in its chapter 11 cases, with approximately US$5 billion in funded debt obligations*
  • MedMen Enterprises, in its leading-edge, out-of-court restructuring, involving hundreds of millions in liabilities and resulting in a US$100 million new-money equity recapitalization*
  • AMC Entertainment Holdings, the largest movie exhibition company in the world, in its successful out-of-court restructuring, which included various capital raising efforts that yielded over US$1.5 billion of cash and other liquidity improvements and reduced AMC’s debt load by more than US$550 million*
  • Healogics, the nation’s leading wound-care center operations provider, on a comprehensive restructuring of over US$860 million in funded debt through an out-of-court debt-for-equity exchange, resulting in a US$450 million deleveraging that obtained 100% participation from its lenders and provided Healogics with US$240 million in new equity financing; as part of the transaction, the company also secured a new US$30 million revolving credit facility and a new US$370 million first lien term loan*
  • Mortgage Contracting Services, a company providing inspection services and property preservation for investors of defaulted mortgages, on its out-of-court debt-for-equity exchange, resulting in a US$400 million deleveraging that obtained 100% participation from its debtholders and provided MCS with renewed incremental liquidity through a new revolving credit facility*
  • Ditech Holding Corporation, one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, and certain of its affiliated debtors in their pre-arranged chapter 11 cases; Ditech and its subsidiaries had about US$15 billion to US$17 billion in debt and mortgage-related liabilities, including residential mortgage securities funding obligations and filed a restructuring support agreement (RSA) backed by holders of more than 75% of its first lien term loan debt, providing for a dual-track restructuring strategy that allows the debtors to evaluate various strategic alternatives with a backstopped emergence plan as they continue to serve customers*
  • Claire’s Stores, one of the nation’s largest retailers, with more than 4,000 owned and franchised locations globally, in its prearranged restructuring efforts related to more than US$2 billion in funded debt*
  • Walter Investment Management, the fifth-largest mortgage servicer in the US, in its prepackaged restructuring efforts related to more than US$2 billion in funded parent-level debt and more than US$13 billion in other funded debt obligations, which allowed this highly regulated enterprise to avoid filing its operating companies for chapter 11 while simultaneously discharging the operating companies’ guarantees of funded debt at the holding company; the restructuring plan also provided a recovery of 50% of the recognized company’s common stock to existing shareholders while reducing the company’s funded debt by more than US$600 million*
  • China Fishery Group, an investment holding company that sources, harvests, onboard processes, and delivers fish worldwide, in its chapter 11 and cross-border restructuring of about US$2 billion in debt*
  • Paragon Offshore, an offshore drilling company, in its contested chapter 11 cases*
  • Basic Energy Services, one of the nation’s largest oilfield services companies, in its prepackaged restructuring cases involving more than US$1.1 billion in funded debt obligations*

Creditor/Sponsor-Side/Financial Institution/Other

  • The special master for the US District Court for the District of Delaware in connection with enforcing judgments for billions, designing a plan for the court-supervised sale of the shares of PDV Holding, the parent company of CITGO, one of the largest refiners, transporters, and marketers of motor fuels, petrochemicals, and other industrial products in the US*
  • The largest secured lender to Parallel in connection with its ongoing restructuring efforts*
  • Talen Energy Marketing and Talen Energy Supply, as second lien lenders, in the chapter 11 cases of NorthEast Gas Generation, an owner and operator of electricity generation plants*
  • The DIP lender, first lien lender, and successful stalking horse bidder in the chapter 11 cases of Tamarac 10200 and Unipharma, manufacturer of over-the-counter and nutraceutical products*
  • An ad hoc group of first lien creditors of Jason Industries, a North American industrials company*
  • An ad hoc group of holders of US$500 million of first lien notes who achieved about 114% recovery in Cobalt International Energy’s chapter 11 case*
  • Ambac Assurance in the state court rehabilitation of its segregated account*
  • Brookfield Asset Management, as one of the largest first lien creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Texas Competitive Electric Holdings Company LLC and its debtor affiliates*
  • General Electric and its affiliates, as sponsor in the prepackaged chapter 11 case of Homer City Generation, a coal-fired, independent power production plant with US$600 million in secured debt prior to its filing*

*Matter handled prior to joining Latham