Exide Technologies Commences Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case, Receiving $500 Million of DIP Financing

Exide Technologies, a global manufacturer of stored electrical energy solutions and one of the world's largest producers of lead-acid batteries, commenced a Chapter 11 case before Judge Carey in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Paul, Weiss advised an unofficial committee of noteholders that beneficially own approximately 50 percent of the $675 million of prepetition secured notes issued by the company in connection with the structuring, negotiation and documentation of emergency postpetition financing for the company.

At the conclusion of a competitive financing process, our clients joined with JPMorgan and UBS, as agents, to provide commitments for $275 million of term loans pursuant to a priming, superpriority $500 million global financing secured by substantially all of the worldwide assets of the company and its non-debtor foreign subsidiaries. The company received interim approval of the financing on June 12 and the financing closed on June 13.

The Paul Weiss team included, among others, bankruptcy partner Alice Eaton and counsel Claudia Tobler and Diane Meyers; finance partner Valerie Radwaner and counsel Stephen Koo; environmental partner Gaines Gwathmey; employee benefits partner Robert Fleder; tax partners Richard Bronstein and David Mayo; intellectual property counsel Claudine Meredith-Goujon; and London-based partner David Lakhdhir.