Professional notice
Padis Mattar has grown significantly since it launched in late 2020 and now has a restructuring and insolvency headcount of five partners and 29 associates
| Global heads of restructuring and insolvency | Eduardo Mattar, Paulo Padis |
|---|---|
| Partners in restructuring team | 5 |
| Restructuring lawyers in Who’s Who Legal | 1 |
| Active cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters | 6 |
History of the practice
São Paulo-based boutique law firm Padis Mattar Advogados was formed in November 2020 by partners Eduardo Mattar, who was previously at Pinheiro Guimarães, and Paulo Padis, who ran his own firm Padis Advogados, which he launched in 2018 after leaving Stocche Forbes.
Both Mattar and Padis are well-known restructuring and insolvency lawyers in Brazil, and have brought some other key names with them from their former firms: Padis brought partner Beatriz Mazzi from Stocche Forbes when he launched his name practice, then Mattar brought Renata Machado Veloso from Pinheiro Guimarães.
Another name to know is Alexandre Rios who joined Padis Advogados in 2018 from Pinheiro Neto.
The practice counts 34 lawyers with experience in restructurings, insolvency, distressed assets, special situations, structured finance, capital markets and M&A. It also has a particular focus on high-complexity transactional and litigious matters.
Network
Padis Mattar Advogados’ sole office is in São Paulo, Brazil.
Who uses it?
The firm represents companies, financial institutions, committees, hedge funds, investors, acquirers, trustees, administrators and receivers in connection with large and complex judicial and out of court restructurings, DIP financings and distressed mergers and acquisitions.
Client names include the world’s biggest banks, private equity and hedge funds, such as Merrill, CarVal Investors, Cerberus Capital Management, Lone Star Funds and Oaktree.
Historic track record
After moving over from Pinheiro Guimarães, Mattar continued advising Graal Participações, a former shareholder and creditor to Odebrecht, which held a US$2.3 billion creditor claim in the company’s debt restructuring – the largest in-court restructuring process in Latin America. Graal’s claim arose out of a decade-long corporate dispute that included court and arbitration proceedings, and when Odebrecht entered its judicial reorganisation in June 2019, Graal raised a number of claims and objections. It eventually succeeded in getting the group to pay it US$1.2 billion under the terms of its restructuring plan that was approved in July 2020.
Top cases of the research period
Padis and Veloso have been advising an ad hoc group of lenders and bondholders in the restructuring of Brazilian miner Samarco Mineração, which entered judicial reorganisation proceedings in April 2020 following bondholder litigation in New York and Brazil related to a fatal dam collapse. The company secured Chapter 15 recognition of the proceedings the following month and subsequently announced several restructuring plans, designed to deal with its over 50 billion reais (US$10 billion) in debt. But in July 2021, advised by Padis Mattar, international unsecured creditors including the lenders and bondholders opposed the plan, accusing the miner of placing the interests of shareholders ahead of creditors. In April 2022, creditors rejected Samarco’s third restructuring plan and confirmed that they would present their own alternative plan, as allowed under Brazil’s new bankruptcy law.
Padis, Mazzi, Rios and others have also been advising private equity firms Lone Star Funds and Castlelake in the recovery of US$280 million in credit held in debentures against Atvos Agroindustrial Participações – a holding company for the Atvos Group, the sugar and ethanol producer of the Odebrecht Group. The debentures’ fiduciary agent tried to enforce on the debt, triggering a judicial reorganisation filing by Atvos in May 2019 that the team then advised its clients on. A vehicle of Lone Star Funds, Lsf10 Brazil, tried to take control of the Atvos group, arguing it was granted as collateral to international lenders of Odebrecht. After multiple court, arbitration and administrative proceedings – including a discovery proceeding in New York – Lsf10 eventually succeeded, with the firm’s advice throughout.
In a case started at Pinheiro Guimarães, Mattar acted for an ad hoc group of bondholders in the judicial reorganisation of Brazil’s Oi, which obtained court approval for a US$20 billion restructuring in January 2019. Mattar guided the bondholders through amendments to the plan and to the indenture regulating their bonds during the research period. The plan amendments were approved in September 2020, with the solicitation process to amend the indenture finalised in May 2021.
Finally, Padis is leading a team that was counsel to an ad hoc bondholders’ group made up of CarVal Investors, AllianceBernstein, Moneda Asset Management and Payden & Rygel, in the restructuring of US$280 million in notes issued by Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer USJ Açúcar e Álcool - Usina São João. Negotiations for an out-of-court restructuring started in January 2020, but USJ eventually filed a judicial reorganisation request before a Brazilian bankruptcy court in August 2021.
ABOUT US
Padis Mattar Advogados is a boutique law firm focused on high-complexity transactional and litigious matters, providing independent legal advice with significant strategic value.
Our team specializes in complex transactions with notable experience in restructurings, insolvency proceedings, distressed assets, special situations, structured finance, capital markets and M&A.
Our firm also boasts a highly skilled dispute resolution team, which has a history of delivering rapid and effective results in the most complex and high stakes litigation and arbitration cases in Brazil and abroad.
Padis Mattar is always focused on agile and efficient solutions and on creative, innovative and multidisciplinary strategies to solve clients’ issues.
Among Padis Mattar clients are domestic and foreign companies, investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms.
RESTRUCTURING AND INSOLVENCY
Our specialized and dedicated team has actively worked in the most important and complex domestic and cross-border restructurings carried out in Brazil since the enactment of the Brazilian Bankruptcy Act (Law 11,101/05) and accumulates vast experience in litigious insolvency proceedings and in the structuring, negotiation and implementation of creative and efficient out-of-court solutions for its clients, whether they are creditors (individual or ad hoc committees), investors or debtors in transactions related to credit recovery, debt restructuring and asset acquisition or sale. Our team has also acted in the structuring and negotiation of the most important debtor-in-possession financing granted since the enactment of the Brazilian Bankruptcy Act, as well as in the successful enforcement of fiduciary liens and other types of collateral granted as security under Brazilian law.
Padis Mattar’s restructuring and insolvency team is composed of professionals who have a deep understanding of the Brazilian Bankruptcy Act coupled with an extensive experience in highly complex litigation. In addition, the team is experienced in corporate law and M&A and finance, which provides important tools for the defense of the interests of our clients, who may rely on our sophistication to seek the most efficient transactional structures while also being prepared to switch to more litigious strategies to preserve its rights.
Furthermore, our restructuring and insolvency team works in an integrated manner with our corporate, capital market and tax teams, which, together with the direct involvement of the partners, critical analysis and intense dedication, makes our advice always technical and accurate in the search for innovative, viable and efficient solutions in all aspects for our clients.