Slaughter and May is advising Premier Oil in relation to the creditor schemes of arrangement of Premier Oil plc and Premier Oil UK Limited, which were sanctioned yesterday by the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
The Schemes were first announced by Premier Oil on 7 January 2020. After an initial attempt to bring an injunction to prevent the launch of the Schemes, which was successfully resisted, the convening hearing took place on 15-16 January 2020 and the sanction hearing on 17-19 March 2020. The Schemes have been opposed throughout by Asia Research & Capital Management Limited, who have since announced their intention to appeal the judgment.
The Schemes, once effective, will provide creditor consents to certain UK North Sea acquisitions, related funding arrangements and the extension of the maturity date under Premier Oil’s credit facilities.
The Slaughter and May team worked closely throughout with Premier Oil’s in-house legal team (Andy Gibb and Suchita Woodward), and the company’s Scottish solicitors, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP (Graeme MacLeod and Rory Thomson).