UPDATE 1: Intrum Bondholders Dish Out Financial Advisor Mandates; PJT Partners Hired by Crossholder Group; Lazard Lined Up by Front-End Noteholders

Reporting: Robert Schach, Chiara Elisei, Luca Rossi
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UPDATE 1: A crossholder group of Intrum bondholders, assisted by Latham & Watkins, has hired PJT Partners as its financial advisor, sources told Reorg. This group represents a significant portion of the Swedish debt collector’s notes across its capital structure, sources added.

A front-end bondholder group has lined up Lazard as financial advisor, sources said. The mandate follows the earlier appointment of Weil, Gotshal & Manges as counsel by the group, which includes investors in the 2024 and 2025 notes. The front-end group aims to constructively engage with the company and provide it with new money as part of an exchange proposal to address the 2024 and 2025 bond maturities, as reported.

On an update investor call Monday, March 25, Intrum’s President and CEO Andres Rubio said that the company is looking to reshape its debt profile to realign it with its assets and future cash flows and hinted at a debt extension with a likely modification of the terms as a possible outcome. He also gave an updated cash figure of 21 billion Swedish kronor (€1.83 billion), equating to about 93% of the 2024 and 2025 maturities, but added that a repayment of the looming bonds via organic cash is not the baseline plan as that would leave little to no cash to run the business. However, the cash balance gives Intrum “the ability to look at maturities from a position of strength,” he pointed out.