Creditor Pacts Used to Thwart LMEs Challenged by Altice USA

For the past two years, some restructuring and finance lawyers have been telling anyone who would listen — at dinners, client meetings and on conference stages — that creditors were skirting antitrust laws by banding together in so-called cooperation agreements.

On Tuesday, Altice USA finally put that warning to the test.

The US unit of billionaire Patrick Drahi’s telecom empire sued lenders including Apollo Capital Management LP, Ares Management LLC and BlackRock Financial Management Inc., alleging they had formed an “illegal cartel” that froze the company out of the US credit market.

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The lawsuit, ...