Shearman & Sterling represented, and continues to represent, backstop investors Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (“Fairfax”), Avenue Capital Management II, L.P., Barclays Bank PLC, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Paulson Credit Opportunities Master LTD., Steelhead Navigator Master L.P., and Whitebox Advisors, LLC, as co-counsel, in connection with AbitibiBowater Inc.’s planned rights offering of up to $500 million of new convertible notes. In April 2009, AbitibiBowater Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries commenced voluntary cases under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and applied for protection from creditors under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The backstop investors’ commitment ensures that AbitibiBowater Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Debtors”) will be able fund distributions under their plans of reorganization and ongoing business operations after emergence from bankruptcy. Shearman & Sterling also negotiated a Plan Support Agreement, pursuant to which the backstop investors have agreed to support the Debtors’ plans of reorganization in the United States and Canada. AbitibiBowater Inc. is the world’s largest producer of newsprint by capacity and one of the largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturers worldwide.

Shearman & Sterling continues to additionally represent Fairfax as administrative agent, collateral agent, and lender under the Debtors’ $206 million secured DIP financing facility, and as a holder of both prepetition secured debt and prepetition unsecured bond debt against the Debtors.

The Shearman & Sterling team included partners Douglas Bartner (New York-Bankruptcy & Reorganization), Lisa Jacobs (New York-Capital Markets), Kenneth Laverriere (New York-Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits), and Constance Fratianni (New York-Finance); counsel Edmund Emrich (New York-Bankruptcy & Reorganization), George Spera (New York-Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits) and Christopher Poggi (New York-Finance); and associates Kerri Silver (New York-Bankruptcy & Reorganization), Quentin Wiest (New York-Bankruptcy & Reorganization), Erica Tso (New York-Capital Markets) and Kevin Roggow (Toronto-Capital Markets).