Wolfspeed, as part of its efforts to proactively strengthen its capital structure, it entered into a restructuring support agreement (RSA) with key lenders, including (i) holders of more than 97% of its senior secured notes, (ii) Renesas Electronics’ wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, and (iii) convertible debtholders holding more than 67% of the outstanding convertible notes. The transactions envisioned by the RSA are expected to reduce the company’s overall debt by approximately 70%, representing a reduction of approximately $4.6 billion, and reduce the company’s annual total cash interest payments by approximately 60%.
Latham & Watkins represents Wolfspeed in the process with a restructuring and special situations team led by New York partners Ray Schrock, Alexander Welch and Keith Simon, with associates Eric Einhorn, Brian Rosen, Alexandra Zablocki, Isaac Ashworth, Thomas Fafara, Rebekah Presley, Ryan Lindsey, Richard Cantoral, Saadia Naeem and Sahib Singh. Advice on corporate matters was provided by Bay Area partners Tad Freese and Richard Kim, with associates Annie Kim, Chelsi DeTurk, Eduardo Magana and Keran Huang; on capital markets matters by New York/Los Angeles partner Greg Rodgers and New York partner John Sobolewski, with associates Ryan Gold and Claire Solimine; on finance matters by Bay Area/New York partner Haim Zaltzman, Los Angeles partners Elizabeth Oh and Kenneth Askin and New York partner Seniz Yakut, with associates Tony Noh and Marc Lim; on tax matters by New York partner Elena Romanova, Bay Area partners Grace Lee and James Metz and New York counsel Rifka Singer, with associates Nimra Syed and Jacob Meninga, with assistance from Jack Santoro; and on CFIUS matters by Washington D.C. partners Les Carnegie, Patrick English, and Damara Chambers and Bay Area partner Joshua Holian and counsel Zachary Eddington, with associates Amulya Vadapalli and Dillon Curtis.
