24
Feb
The current state of the European restructuring market
Elevated interest rates, rising financing costs, geopolitical uncertainty as well as inflationary pressures continue to challenge businesses across Europe. In 2025, a slow but steady increase in restructuring activity was driven by proactive strategies such as ‘amend-and-extend' agreements and out-of-court solutions aimed at preserving value and avoiding formal insolvency proceedings. This session will explore the evolving trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the European restructuring market and consider what may lie ahead in 2026.
- How will expected economic conditions influence distress levels and restructuring strategies in 2026?
- What factors contributed to an increase in restructuring activity this year? Does the panel expect restructurings to peak in 2026?
- How has the trend in out-of-court restructurings reshaped the European market and what does it mean for stakeholders going forward?
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SpeakersSam Brodie Partner Akin
Giovanni Luna Managing Director, Head of Origination Fortress Investment Group
Oliver Gill European Head of Restructuring & Director KKR Credit
Simon Lalande Managing Director, European Co-Head of Restructuring Rothschild & Co
Oliver Ashforth-Shaw Managing Director Ares Credit Group
Raj Apte Senior Managing Director & European Coverage Leader, Financial Advisory Teneo
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Sam has both a deep restructuring skill set and broad finance expertise. He advises clients on complex financial restructurings and workouts of distressed bonds, securitisations, private placement notes and loans across a range of sectors and jurisdictions. He acts for bondholders, lenders, private placement noteholders, ad hoc committees, sponsors, issuers as well as other stakeholders across the capital structure. He also advises credit and alternative investment funds on special-situation financings.
Representative Work:
- Alpha Bank S.A.: Represented Alpha Bank S.A. on its disposal of a €0.41 billion portfolio of corporate non-performing loans to an entity financed by funds managed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management and Fortress Credit Corp.
- Fortenova: Counsel to Fortenova Group a food producer and retailer in Croatia and the surrounding region, on issues arising from the existence of sanctioned Russian debt and equity holders in its capital structure.
- intu Metrocentre: Counsel to the ad hoc committee of bondholders in relation to the restructuring of the CMBS issued by intu Metrocentre Finance plc.
- Ferroglobe: Represented a key stakeholder in relation to the restructuring of bonds issued by Ferroglobe plc, one of the world’s leading suppliers of silicon metal, silicon-based and manganese-based specialty alloys and ferroalloys.
- Fairhold Securitisation Limited: Advised Fairhold Securitisation Limited in connection with the £1 billion restructuring of its distressed securitisation structure.
- Lehman Brothers: Counsel to the liquidators of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co. B.V. in connection with the partial wind-down of its debt issuance programmes.
Oliver Gill (London) joined KKR in 2020 and is a Director. He serves as Head of European Restructuring across KKR’s credit strategies. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Gill provided corporate finance advice to shareholders, creditors and boards of distressed companies as part of the restructuring team at Rothschild & Co. Previously, he worked in the global restructuring group at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mr. Gill holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from Durham University.
Simon Lalande is a Managing Director in Rothschild & Co’s Debt Advisory & Restructuring team in London, and is European Co-Head of Restructuring. He joined Rothschild & Co in 2009.
Simon holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a B.Com. and a B.A. from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Oliver is a Managing Director in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on portfolio management within European direct lending. Prior to joining Ares in 2019, Oliver was a Senior Manager in the Transaction Advisory Team at EY, where he focused on restructuring.
Raj is a Senior Managing Director and European Coverage Leader for Teneo Capital Advisory, with over 27 years’ experience of Corporate Finance.
Raj was previously Head of Restructuring for Central and South-East Europe & CIS (CESA) at EY in London.
Prior to that he was Head of Restructuring for Germany, Switzerland and Austria at Lazard, and before that was an Executive Director in Morgan Stanley’s EMEA Restructuring Advisory business.
Raj has a broad experience in serving borrowers and creditors in complex, cross-border restructuring transactions across a variety of industries and sectors. Raj is dual qualified as a Solicitor (England) and as a German attorney-at-law (Rechtsanwalt). He is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments.