Guildford: Stevens & Bolton advises Pizza Hut on CVA

Law firm Stevens & Bolton has advised Pizza Hut Restaurants after its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) was launched on September 10, 2020. The CVA was approved with the requisite majorities of the company’s creditors and shareholder and became effective on September 28.

The CVA is expected to remain in place for a two-year period. It operates among other things to write-off rent arrears accrued by the company across its leasehold estate during Q2 and Q3 this year, whilst moving to turnover rents across a number of its huts.

Andy Platt, CFO of Pizza Hut Restaurants, commented as follows: “The impact of the Covid crisis was such that, for the first time in its long history, the company had no other choice but to enter into a CVA process to gain support from key stakeholders to restore the business to its usual healthy levels of performance. In preparing and executing this difficult and painful process, the company was fortunate to find a partner as professional and diligent as Stevens & Bolton, ably led by David Steinberg. The successful completion of the CVA helped to protect the jobs of thousands of our passionate and dedicated teams in restaurants across the UK and to look forward to brighter times ahead.”

Commenting on the CVA, David Steinberg, co-head of Stevens & Bolton’s restructuring and insolvency team, said: “We were delighted to assist the Pizza Hut Restaurants management team and their restructuring advisors, Alvarez & Marsal, on this important operational restructuring. This was not a path that the company decided to go down lightly, but having done so we helped the company to prepare a proposal that puts the company on a more stable footing during uncertain times for the restaurant industry generally. The fact that the CVA was approved without subsequent challenge from those creditors who were given notice of the creditor meeting that took place on September 28, reflects well on what was perceived to be a very fair CVA.”

The Stevens & Bolton team was led by David Steinberg, with support from Matthew Padian and Yasmin Curry (restructuring and insolvency) and Alex Watt and Ian Craig (real estate).