Ryan Preston Dahl Talks Liability Management Exercises with The Wall Street Journal

Total liability management exercises more than doubled in the year ending 2024, according to data from S&P Global. In a recent article, The Wall Street Journal explores the evolution and the increasing popularity of distressed-debt exchanges.

In particular, LMEs have become a favored resource of private-equity firms as they work to address challenged balance sheets. Still, the most recent wave of LMEs hasn’t been immune to lawsuits.

Additionally, “cooperation agreements” have become a common part of the LME playbook creating new obstacles for both borrowers and their creditors:

“Many of the co-ops that used to be all for one and one for all are now starting to look closer to that 51/49 paradigm that they were supposed to prevent,” said Ryan Preston Dahl, chair of Ropes & Gray’s business restructuring group.

Ropes & Gray’s liability management practice is at the cutting edge of this rapidly evolving market. In 2024 alone, Ropes & Gray led over $20 billion of liability management transactions and, more recently, advised on Altice France’s historic exchange involving more than €24 billion.