WFW advises Danaos on 'ground-breaking' transaction

Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) advised Danaos Corporation on the restructuring and refinancing of its US$2.2Bn debt maturing 31 December 2018 with certain of its lenders including Citibank, Credit Suisse, HSH Nordbank and RBS.

WFW said the refinancing strengthens Danaos’ capital structure and reduces its debt by about US$551M while extending its maturity by five years to end-2023. New shares have been issued as part of the refinancing to certain lenders equalling a 47.5% stake in the company. 

Its largest shareholder, Danaos Investments Ltd, has also made various financial and operational commitments as part of the deal. 

Greek-headquartered Danaos has a container fleet comprising of 59 primarily panamax vessels with a total capacity of 353,586 TEU.

The WFW team advising Danaos was led by partner and Athens office head George Paleokrassas. He commented “We’re delighted to have advised and supported Danaos on this ground-breaking transaction that radically strengthens its financial position and ideally positions it to take advantage of the current opportunities in the container sector. Having the largest dedicated maritime practice both in Greece and worldwide allowed us to be able to support the company on such a complicated, high-profile and demanding transaction.”