Overview
David K. Hong is a partner in the Financial Restructuring group at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s New York office.
With his broad-based knowledge in both cash and synthetic credit products, David advises sophisticated investors and corporations in identifying and implementing creative liability management transactions, bespoke credit transactions, opportunistic private credit financing transactions and CDS transactions.
David has been involved in the design and implementation of some of the most complex liability management transactions, such as Envision Healthcare, West Marine and WernerCo. He represents ad hoc groups of creditors in stressed and distressed situations and advises investment managers on complex, bespoke and structured financing transactions by helping to formulate financing opportunities within the parameters of existing debt covenants.
Prior to joining Paul Hastings, David was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. Prior to Kirkland, he was a senior investment counsel at King Street Capital Management, a leading global credit-oriented investment firm, where he played a critical role in identifying legal value drivers, structuring private credit and derivative transactions, and co-leading many of the firm’s most successful and high-profile stressed and distressed investments.
David also has extensive experience in CDS, having been a member of ISDA’s CSC leadership team and playing a key role in the structuring, drafting and the implementation of the various rules governing CDS since 2008, including the Determinations Committee rules, the Big Bang Protocol, the 2014 Definitions and most recently, the 2019 NTCE Supplement.
Representations
Representative LME representations:
- An ad hoc group of lenders in Empire Today’s liquidity enhancing, de-levering new super-priority term loan and debt exchange transaction.
- A significant lender in Valcour Packaging LLC’s new money debt issuance and debt exchange transaction.
- An ad hoc group of lenders in Premier Dental Services, Inc. (d/b/a Sonrava Health)’s maturity-extending debt exchange transaction.
- A significant lender in LaserShip Inc. (d/b/a OnTrac)’s liquidity enhancing, maturity extending debt restructuring transaction.
- A third-party lender in Dish’s liquidity enhancing financing.
- A potential third-party liquidity provider in iHeart’s maturity extending debt exchange transaction.
- An ad hoc group of lenders in Pabst Blue Ribbon’s liquidity enhancing new super-priority first out term loan.
- West Marine, Inc. in a series of comprehensive recapitalization transactions involving debt exchanges, debt-for-equity conversions, new money financings that enhanced liquidity, extended maturities, materially deleveraged the balance sheet.*
- Werner International in a liquidity enhancing sponsor-led incremental term loan transaction and a series of transactions involving new money financing and an uptier exchange of certain existing debt obligations.*
- Envision Healthcare in a series of ground-breaking transactions involving new money financings, exchanges of existing debt obligations and uptiering of certain other debt obligations that enhanced liquidity, extended maturities and deleveraged the balance sheet.*
Representative Financing and ad hoc Representations
- Rite Aid Corporation in its Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession financing.*
- Careismatic Brands, Inc., a leading medical apparel retailer, in its Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession financing.*
- United Road Services, industry leader in providing vehicle and heavy-haul transportation services, in a comprehensive out of court debt for equity recapitalization transaction that fully eliminated all of URS’s funded debt.*
- A significant lender in Peloton’s holistic debt-reducing refinancing transaction that extended maturities.
- Värde Partners as a second lien secured term loan lender to IAMGOLD Corporation, an intermediate gold producer and developer.*
- An ad hoc group of term lenders of Byju's Alpha Inc.*
- An ad hoc group of secured creditors of Talen Energy Corporation.*
- Viking Global in a unique unsecured convertible bridge loan to Fludigm Corporation.*
- L Catterton in the out of court restructuring of a consumer product company.*
- BC Credit in a direct financing to a growth company.*
- HBK Capital Management in various CDS transactions.
Matters denoted with (*) were handled prior to joining Paul Hastings.
Involvement
- Member, ISDA's CDS Definitions Drafting Committee, 2009, 2014 and 2018
- Member, ISDA's Credit Steering Committee Leadership Group
- Vice Chair, MFA's Derivatives and Swaps Committee