The most recent transaction that AMC Entertainment has orchestrated is a coda to the masterclass of liability management that continues to create windfalls for certain creditors while mostly continuing to eviscerate retail shareholders.

In the coming weeks, AMC will close a settlement with certain first lien noteholders (the outside deadline in the agreement is 29 August, but 80% of the term loan is already signed up and it has all consents needed to close) to end the final chapter of an LME which it believed it had wrapped up almost exactly one year ago. In that transaction, AMC advised by Weil Gotshal and Moelis pulled out various miraculous moves, extending nearly all of its maturities out through 2029 and beyond via the creation of a second lien convertible and a drop-down transaction involving 175 theaters and the AMC brand itself.

That July 2024 deal netted consent from lenders under AMC’s erstwhile $2bn term loan due 2026, and a particularly clever group of second lien noteholders led by Pentwater and Discovery and advised by Wachtell and Perella Weinberg.