Was Ardagh's carve-out of its metal packaging business in 2021 an early example of a European LME before LMEs went global? Call it what you will, the troubled packaging conglomerate is getting a taste of both the potential upside and the backlash caused by these controversial financial maneuvers.

In this episode, 9fin's global head of restructuring, Max Frumes, sat down with European senior distressed credit analyst Emmet McNally to discuss some of the events that led us here. Events so far have culminated in the company cleansing creditors party to restructuring negotiations that failed to reach common ground.

Unsecured creditors Arini and Canyon have sued the company for alleged value extraction and fraudulent conveyance dating back to the metal carve-out. Emmet and Max talk us through the headline terms of the proposals put forward by the company and the unsecured bondholder group, and discuss how bid-ask spreads between the two proposals could be narrowed to reach a mutually agreeable deal.

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