Houndstooth House started as a shared vision between two friends – now it’s been named a Small Business of the Year. Over the past 20 years, founders Denise Cotter and Michelle Marino have grown their two-woman design firm into a thriving business with a 10,000-square-foot showroom and eight employees.

At U.S. Bank, we know that bold growth starts with meaningful support. That’s why we support over 1.1 million small businesses with personalized resources and expert guidance. For visionaries like Denise and Michelle, we’re more than a bank – we’re a partner in progress.

Behind every thriving local business is a story worth telling. For Houndstooth House, that story begins with Sioux Falls entrepreneurs Denise Cotter and Michelle Marino – and a partnership with U.S. Bank.

What started as a shared vision for a flexible, family-first design studio has grown into an award-winning business with a 10,000-square-foot retail space, an eight-person team. Now named a Small Business of the Year, their journey is proof that heart and hard work go hand in hand. U.S. Bank is proud to be a part of their story – and over 1.1 million others like it.

If the restructuring is approved, New Fortress Energy will split into two companies. A new entity will hold New Fortress’s Brazilian energy assets, maintain its own balance sheet, and belong to participating creditors. According to an analysis by Debtwire, holders of the company’s $2.7 billion in senior secured “new” notes due 2029 would receive 94 percent of the Brazilian entity’s equity.

The remaining non-Brazil assets would form the new New Fortress that would continue trading on the Nasdaq. More than $5 billion of the existing debt would be converted into 65 percent of that company’s equity, plus roughly $527 million of new five-year debt, and $2.5 billion in newly issued preferred stock. Holders of the old $2.7 billion in senior secured notes would also receive $974 million of preferred stock and 26 percent of the reorganized company’s equity, along with their stake in the Brazilian assets.

The restructuring has attracted the usual roster of advisors, including Paul Weiss, Akin Gump, Cahill Gordon, Perella Weinberg, and Evercore, among others. But the bottom line is simple—the U.K. process will allow New Fortress to restructure faster, with fewer motions, fewer hearings, and dramatically lower costs than a traditional U.S. Chapter 11. “While the U.K. restructuring plan process is expected to preserve greater value than alternative implementation routes, additional reasons for choosing a U.K. process include the ability to address discrete portions of the capital structure, the absence of a strict absolute priority rule, relative cost efficiency, procedural speed, and implications for listing status,” according to an April 1 Debtwire report.

John Bringardner, an executive editor at Debtwire, told me that the May 14 hearing should pretty much be the end of it for the New Fortress restructuring. “There would really only be one or two other hearings after that, because the U.K. process, it’s not like you see, say, in the Saks Global Chapter 11 case, where you’ve got hearings every week or two, going through every little step of the process,” Bringardner said. “In the U.K., you just have far fewer hearings—a convening hearing and then a sanction hearing a month and a half later, where the court officially approves the plan. These are not the most exciting hearings.” But they’ll get the job done, another notch in the trend of companies seeking restructuring refuge in London.

Meanwhile, New Fortress stock has been on a roller coaster since March 17, when the restructuring plan became public. Between March 17 and April 1, as the massive shareholder dilution became clear, the stock plunged some 50 percent. Since then, it has rebounded around 20 percent and now has a market capitalization of about $200 million. If my math is right, Edens’ post-restructuring stake would be worth around $13 million. (Edens did not respond to my request for an interview.) But he at least gets to keep an option on the new New Fortress, something American bankruptcy courts would never allow, given the debt wipeout. Maybe he could offer what’s left of his New Fortress equity to settle the litigation with his onetime paramour?

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