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Daniel Gwen is a member of the business restructuring group with more than a decade of experience representing major companies and stakeholders in all aspects of corporate restructurings. Dan has helped clients navigate and pursue complex chapter 11 cases, efficient out-of-court restructurings, and bespoke special situation solutions. Over his career, Dan has been involved with or led several innovative breakthroughs in liability management transactions, including the eponymous J. Crew “dropdown” transaction and the first-ever Dutch auction “uptier” transaction.
Dan is a frequent commentator on special situations and restructuring topics, and has been interviewed or quoted in leading publications like the The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC.
Experience
- Rodan + Fields, a renowned American company specializing in skincare products, in its unprecedented transaction combining a business transition from multi-level marketing into a direct-selling omni-retail business model and a recapitalization and uptier transaction that raised $75 million of new money and provided debt service and covenant relief on $550 million of secured debt.
- A leading platform dental services organization in an out-of-court restructuring involving the deleveraging of its approximately $900 million capital structure, including through an equitization of approximately $300 million of senior secured obligations and the provision of a $75 million new money term loan facility.
- Trinseo Materials Operating S.CA., and certain of its affiliates, in connection with a $1.1 billion innovative financing transaction addressing the Company’s 2024 senior secured term loans and $385 million of its 2025 unsecured bonds. Funds managed and advised by Oaktree, Angelo Gordon and Apollo provided the financing. Trinseo (NYSE: TSE) is a specialty material solutions provider that partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart and sustainability-focused manner.
- Vesta Holdings, LLC and certain of its subsidiaries in their chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Vesta was an insurance brokerage service provider for individual and corporate clients across the United States, primarily concentrating on property and casualty insurance offerings. During its chapter 11 cases, Vesta effectuated an all asset sale of its business and confirmed its plan of liquidation, which was supported by 100% of secured lenders and general unsecured creditors who voted on the plan.
- Rodan + Fields in the development, negotiation, and consummation of a cutting-edge uptier debt exchange that ultimately resulted in near-unanimous lender participation and reduced the company’s debt burden by over $100 million, raised $30 million of new money capital, and extended the maturity of its existing loans by two years.
- Independent Director of Basic Energy Services, Inc. in connection with that director’s investigation and analysis of estate causes of action as part of Basic’s chapter 11 cases, which involved more than $400 million of funded debt.
- An ad hoc group of first lien debt holders in the chapter 11 cases of My Alarm Company as DIP lenders, stalking horse bidder, and exit lenders.
- Equity sponsor of a leading independent entertainment company in connection with a consensual out of court recapitalization of the company.
- J.Crew Group, Inc., one of the nation’s premier clothing retailers, with approximately $2 billion in funded debt and 13,000 employees, in their pre-arranged chapter 11 cases.*
- Maines Paper & Foodservice Inc., one of the leading foodservice and broadline distributors in the United States with over $1 billion in annual revenues, in the sale of substantially all its assets to an affiliate of Lineage Logistics.*
- A major creditor of EuropaCorp S.A. in conjunction with its restructuring of over $300 million of obligations.*
- The NORDAM Group, Inc., a leading aerospace manufacturing and repair company, in the first-ever “postpackaged” chapter 11 cases.*
- J.Crew Group, Inc. in its 2017 out-of-court restructuring efforts involving approximately $2 billion in funded debt. This restructuring resulted in approximately 80% of the common stock to be maintained by the existing equity sponsors while deleveraging the company through an out-of-court exchange for over $500 million of holding company debt.*
- Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, as debt holders and financial sponsors of iHeart Media, in connection with the chapter 11 case of iHeart.*
- Fieldwood Energy, a Gulf of Mexico offshore energy exploration and production company, in connection with its chapter 11 cases through which Fieldwood purchased Gulf of Mexico assets of Noble Energy.*
- Memorial Production Partners, an oil and gas master limited partnership, in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 cases to restructure approximately $1.8 billion in debt.*
- Breitburn Energy Partners, L.P. in restructuring efforts related to more than $3 billion in funded debt obligations.*
*Experience prior to joining Ropes & Gray