Paul, Weiss advised French oilfields services giant CGG S.A. in the successful implementation of its financial restructuring plan. CGG announced that the company had equitized nearly all of its unsecured debt, extended the maturities of its secured debt and secured additional liquidity, with debt reduced to $1.2 billion. The implementation marks the completion of a financial restructuring that began more than a year ago and led to a restructuring support agreement that swapped nearly $2 billion in debt for most of the reorganized company’s equity.

CGG simultaneously commenced insolvency proceedings in Paris and New York under French sauvegarde and U.S. chapter 11 proceedings last June. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recognized and agreed to enforce the restructuring plan on December 21, marking one of the few times a U.S. bankruptcy court has been asked to enforce a French court-sanctioned bankruptcy plan. Paul, Weiss represented CGG in its U.S. chapter 11 proceedings.

The Paul, Weiss team included bankruptcy partners Alan Kornberg and Brian Hermann and counsel Lauren Shumejda and Claudia Tobler; tax partners Scott Sontag and Lindsay Parks; corporate partners Mark Bergman and Lawrence Wee and Patrick Campbell and counsel Austin Witt; litigation partner Jacqueline Rubin; and employee benefits partner Andrew Gaines and counsel Jason Ertel.