Meng Ru, Partner, Special Situations & Private Credit

Meng Ru

Partner

Areas of Focus

Meng Ru, Partner, Special Situations & Private Credit

Meng Ru

Partner

mru@akingump.com

Areas of Focus

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Biography
  • Focuses on complex domestic and international finance transactions.
  • Advises clients in acquisition financings, direct lending, special situation financings and out-of-court and in-court restructurings.
  • Helps clients optimize the value of their investments in distressed debt securities.

Meng has represented some of the most sophisticated financial institutions and their portfolio companies in domestic and international debt financings. Meng works with credit investors, financial sponsors and other investors and borrowers to creatively structure a wide range of forward-thinking and novel credit investments. This includes direct lending to private equity sponsors in connection with an acquisition, financing solutions to stressed and distressed companies, and growth capital transactions to emerging companies. She also has extensive experience in financing transactions in connection with leveraged buyouts, including first lien and second lien senior secured debt financings, bridge financings and private mezzanine debt financings. She has worked on a number of large financing deals with top-tier financial sponsors around the world.

Meng advises institutional investors and corporate clients in restructuring the balance sheets of overleveraged companies, including debt workouts and debt exchanges. She represents debtors and creditors in a range of financings, including rescue, debtor-in-possession (DIP) and exit. Meng also has a deep familiarity with the distressed debt market, and she offers practical advice to see transactions through to fruition. Additionally, she advises investors in their distressed investing activities.

Representative Work
  • Represented an ad hoc group of lenders of Casa Systems, Inc. in the refinancing and extension transaction for Casa Systems’ Term Loan B senior secured debt.
  • Represented an ad hoc group of second lien term loan lenders in connection with a restructuring and exchange of existing debt of West Marine.
  • Advised Mubadala Capital in the credit facilities to finance its acquisition of AOG, LLC d/b/a TruFood Manufacturing.
  • Represented Sungard as borrower in a $95.3 million term loan DIP facility and $50 million ABL DIP facility.
  • Represented the Aeroméxico Ad Hoc Group in the Debtors’ $762.5 million extensive exit financing.
  • Advised a life science-centric investment fund in a pharmaceutical royalty, milestone payment monetization financing. Since the fund was not structured for financing, it required significant creative legal work to address the lender’s concern related to an unprecedented payment sweep and Swiss corporate law-related matters.
  • Counseled an ad hoc group of holders of the prepetition secured notes issued by a large manufacturing interest to restructure the company and provided various financings (including DIP and exit) to facilitate the restructuring. The deal was challenging because of an asset-based lending (ABL) facility that shared the collateral that secured the clients’ prepetition secured notes. The transaction involved extensive negotiation with the ABL lenders relating to the rollover of the prepetition ABL into our DIP and allocation of the sale proceeds.
  • Assisted an ad hoc group of holders of the prepetition convertible notes issued by an energy exploration company in restructuring the company and provided various financings (including DIP and exit) to facilitate the restructuring. The deal required extensive negotiation with a prepetition second lien class, which tried to control the restructuring process. Eventually reached agreement with the second lien to provide the DIP and exit financings together so that the restructuring deal could be completed.
  • For an ad hoc group led by two of the largest private investment firms in the world, assisted with the provision of a replacement DIP financing in a very short time frame to bridge the closing of a Section 363 credit by clients. The replacement DIP financing was closed, and the client successfully bid the business and became its owner.

Languages
  • Chinese

Education
  • LL.M., University of Virginia School of Law, 2004

  • LL.B., Fudan University Law School, China, 2000

Bar Admissions
  • New York

Recognitions
  • The Legal 500 US, Commercial Lending: Advice to Borrowers, 2022.
  • Crain’s New York Business, Notable Women in Law, 2022.
  • New York Law Journal, Rising Star, 2015.
Speeches and Publications
  • “From China to the World: Cross-Border Transactions,” Harvard China Law Association Symposium, 2017 and 2018.

Insights and Achievements

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              Distinguished by our areas of focus, as a cohesive and integrated firm, we are defined by the caliber of our work, the responsiveness of our service and a culture that is rooted in collaboration and forward-thinking.

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