Car manufacturer, Aston Martin, has triggered a legal fight with its very own bondholders (the people who basically lent Aston Martin money) following a controversial deal the company struck. Aston Martin recently borrowed £550 million from a private credit firm owned by BlackRock, pledging a lot of valuable assets in order to borrow this amount.

The issue with having pledged these assets in a new financing deal is that it means the bondholders that had lent Aston Martin money beforehand (to a value of £1.3 billion) are now unable to rely on those very assets to recover the money that they lent. These bondholders have recently filed for something called discovery, which is a legal process that forces Aston Martin to disclose documents and information to do with the new financing deal.

Analysis

This is a case of creditor-on-creditor violence, where a struggling company like Aston Martin is preferring one type of lender over another by moving valuable assets within reach of only particular lenders. Private credit funds like those managed by BlackRock regularly do this, where they strike aggressive financing deals that shift power in their favour.

What does this mean for the sector?

• Bondholders in the future will probably begin demanding stricter contractual protections to stop companies from moving valuable assets out of their reach like this

• Private credit firms are likely to come under some reputational pressure for being overly aggressive, even if what they are doing is legally permissible

• The litigation that arises from this situation will likely set an important precedent in English law as to how asset transfers that disadvantage certain lenders will be treated