Zepos & Yannopoulos advised Famar in the restructuring of its €234 million debt and recapitalisation from private equity-backed Pillarstone platfrom, established by KKR and John Davison. Pillarstone Greece is among the first licensed servicing entities in Greece, founded to service non-performing exposures of the four Greek systemic banks under Greek law 4354/2015 on NPLs. Famar was the first account to enter in the platform and the second successful transaction of Pillarstone in Greece after Notos department stores earlier this summer. Famar, established in 1949 and part of the Marinopoulos Group that fell apart, is a leading provider of contract manufacturing and development services to the pharmaceutical and health & beauty industry, dealing with a wide range of products to a broad customer base from 11 production plants across Europe and 1 in North America.
The deal included the group’s €234 million pre-existing debt obligations being reduced by 116 million, with maturities on facilities being extended and provides for Pillarstone to underwrite a new senior facility of 58 million euros and fully own Famar’s equity. We advised Famar with the structuring and implementation of complex restructuring and financing arrangements involving multijurisdictional considerations and a diversified lenders base.
The ZEYA team was led by Kely Pesketzi, senior associate, assisted by associate Athina Palli. Partners Daphne Cozonis and Alex Karopoulos provided tax advice.