Intelsat S.A.

Complex Capital Structure Drives Chapter 11 Restructuring

Intelsat S.A., a leading global satellite communications provider, entered 2020 carrying a highly complex capital structure comprising numerous series of publicly traded notes issued by multiple entities across the Intelsat enterprise. Restructuring a capital structure of this scope meant identifying and communicating with a wide network of noteholders, custodians, and nominee institutions holding securities issued across the enterprise’s various entities.

On May 13, 2020, Intelsat commenced Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case’s complexity centered on Intelsat’s multi-entity note structure, which required the restructuring team to reconcile the interests of distinct creditor constituencies tied to different issuers within the enterprise while working toward a single, unified plan of reorganization.

Intelsat assembled a restructuring team, including Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal counsel, PJT Partners as financial advisor and investment banker, Alvarez & Marsal as restructuring advisor, and Kekst CNC as communications advisor. Intelsat engaged Stretto to serve as claims and noticing agent and to support the case’s public-securities components.

Intelsat Emerges A Privately Held Company With Stronger Balance Sheet

Drawing on its experience administering claims and public-securities workstreams in some of the market’s largest, multi-entity Chapter 11 cases, Stretto managed those public-securities components throughout the case, handling beneficial-holder identification across Intelsat’s note structure, plan solicitation and vote tabulation, and communication with DTC and nominee institutions holding Intelsat’s securities. As the case moved toward confirmation, Stretto also carried out the securities-related distributions and other corporate actions required under the plan.

One particularly complex aspect of the distribution process required Stretto to exclude specified holders from an otherwise DTC-facilitated distribution. Suppressing select holder positions while allowing the broader distribution to proceed through DTC required Stretto to coordinate closely with DTC and the affected nominee firms. This distribution mechanic added an unusually intricate securities-processing workstream to the case, as it required distinguishing among holders within the same DTC-based process rather than applying uniform treatment across all positions.

As claims and noticing agent, Stretto served as a single point of contact across Intelsat’s various issuing entities and their respective noteholder bases while these workstreams ran in parallel. This gave Intelsat’s legal and financial advisors a reliable foundation from which to negotiate plan terms and build creditor consensus.

Intelsat emerged from Chapter 11 in February 2022 as a privately held company. The restructuring reduced Intelsat’s funded debt by more than half, taking it from approximately $16 billion to $7 billion, while Intelsat obtained nearly $6.7 billion in new exit financing.

By managing claims, noticing, and public-securities work across Intelsat’s complex capital structure, Stretto helped the company carry its restructuring through to confirmation, giving Intelsat a substantially strengthened balance sheet as it moved forward as a private company.