Castle HoldCo 4, Ltd - Proposed Scheme of Arrangement

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Slaughter and May is advising Castle HoldCo 4, Ltd (the "Company"), the parent company of Countrywide plc, the leading UK residential estate agency, on a proposed scheme of arrangement from a group of holders of its senior secured notes and senior notes (the "Scheme").

If approved, the proposed Scheme would result in £75 million of additional equity capital and a reduction of indebtedness outstanding to £175 million, including the repayment in full of the Company’s revolving credit facility and related hedging liabilities.

The new equity would be provided by funds managed by Apollo, Oaktree, Alchemy Special Opportunities and Polygon.

An independent committee of the Board of the Company has been formed to consider the proposed Scheme.

The Company announced details of the proposed Scheme on 17 February, 2009.

Halliwells LLP are acting for the independent committee of the Board of the Company in connection with the proposed Scheme. The holders of the senior secured notes and senior notes that have put forward the proposed Scheme are represented by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Linklaters LLP and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and advised by Lazard & Co., Limited.

Corporate: Gavin Brown (partner); Financing: Sarah Paterson (partner), Ian Johnson (associate), Tom Vickers (associate); Tax: Graham Iversen (partner), Ben Mudd (associate)