A&O, DWS and Freshfields take on Polestar job

Allen & Overy, Denton Wilde Sapte and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have bagged lead roles in the restructuring of the heavily-indebted printing company, Polestar Group.

Allen & Overy is advising Polestar on its financial restructuring, which is expected to result in losses of around £700m to its debt and equity investors. The team is being led by banking partner David Lines and restructuring partner Ian Field.

DWS is representing Bahrain-based private equity group Investcorp. The team is being led by insolvency and restructuring partner Mark Andrews.

Investcorp is understood to have invested up to £250m in Polestar after it formed Polestar in 1998, by merging the British Printing Company and UK printer Watmoughs, in a buy-out valued at £810m.

Freshfields is advising the steering committee, which consists of fund manager Bluebay and three senior debt investors, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Scotland, on financial negotiations, which currently include a planned debt-for-equity swap.

The Freshfields team is being led by restructuring partners Richard Tett and Chris Howard. Corporate partner Frank Miller is advising on the corporate restructuring side.

The printing industry has been a troubled sector of late, particularly since the recent decline in advertising, which has made it increasingly difficult for companies to cover their debt.