T. Robert Zochowski, Jr.

A partner in the Corporate Department, Bob Zochowski is co-head of the firm's Finance Practice Group and a member of the Media and Entertainment Group. He is recognized as one of the leading securitization lawyers in the country by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and The Best Lawyers in America.

Experience

Bob has over 20 years of experience as a financing lawyer, focusing on innovative and specialized finance structures. His expertise spans unique securitizations involving esoteric assets, such as films, patent royalties, power plants and hydrocarbon reserves to project financings and other traditional financings. He advises a diverse range of clients, including public and private companies, financial institutions and investment funds. Bob has extensive experience across a broad array of industries, including energy/infrastructure, media and entertainment, restaurants and technology.

Some of his recent representations include:

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT TRANSACTIONS:

• AIG as investor in notes issued by Larry Levinson Productions to finance made-for-television movies.
• Ambac Assurance  in:
  • numerous film securitizations and financings exceeding $3 billion for Marvel Studios, The Weinstein Company, Universal Studios and Dreamworks; and
  • a $300 million TV syndication revenue securitization supported by classic television sitcoms.
• The initial purchasers in structuring and placing $550 million of asset-backed notes issued by Miramax and supported by revenues from a library of 700+ films and the subsequent $275 million refinancing.
• Citibank in the non-recourse financings of a $1.2 billion portfolio of common and preferred stock, a $1 billion portfolio of convertible preferred stock and $1 billion securitizations of U.S. and foreign motion picture receivables for each of Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios.
• Citigroup in its $555 million "Beverly One" slate financing for Relativity Media and Sony Pictures.
• Credit Suisse First Boston as arranger in a $500 million financing for Walt Disney Studios.
• dick clark productions in the $300 million securitization of event television production contracts.
• the financial guarantor in a securitization of talent agency commissions.
• Goldman Sachs  as:
  • investor in $750 million of structured debt supported by television series revenues; and
  • placement agent of senior and subordinated debt and equity in the Asian Film fund managed by the Weinstein Company.
• Lehman Brothers in a $300 million revolving and term debt facility for Alcon Entertainment's film production.
• Paramount Pictures in its Melrose I, Melrose II and Vantage film slate financings.
• senior debt investors in a $100 million structured term debt facility secured by performing rights agency commissions.
• Warner Bros. in its $450 million film co-financing agreement with RatPac-Dune Entertainment, a newly formed partnership between by Dune's Steven Mnuchin, filmmaker Brett Ratner and Australian investor James Packer, to fund a Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema movie slate of up to 75 titles.

ENERGY/INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSACTIONS:

• Citibank:
  • and its affiliates in the liquidation of the "Rawhide" transaction and other matters associated with the Enron bankruptcy;
  • in financings of portfolios of U.S. power plants, natural gas pipelines, gas liquification facilities and other energy assets aggregating $2.5 billion; and
  • in the structuring and arranging of a £1 billion of structured equity and debt project financing.
• Credit Suisse First Boston, WestLB, CIBC and Citibank in a structured equity financing of a $2.4 billion portfolio of interests in infrastructure projects throughout the world.

RESTAURANT TRANSACTIONS:

• CKE Restaurants in the issuance of $1.15 billion of bonds backed by its franchise royalties and company owned stores.
• Guggenheim Partners in a $155 million partial refinancing securitization of Sonic Capital LLC and its affiliates.
• UBS Securities as underwriter in the $355 million securitized acquisition financing by Aurora Capital of NuCO2 Inc. and Goldman Sachs as placement agent of an additional $40 million offering by NuCO2.

SPECIAL/UNIQUE SITUATIONS TRANSACTIONS:

• Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. in connection with a term loan and stock purchase to recapitalize Billabong International Limited.
• Highbridge Capital in Digital Cinema Implementation Partners' $660 million transaction to finance the acquisition and installation of digital cinema projectors and related equipment in approximately 15,000 movie theater screens across the United States and Canada supported by exhibition payments from film studios.
• Soros Fund Management in its investment in Quattro Consultoria em Telecomunicações, a wireless broadband network provider in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The investment represented Soros' initial entry into a growing market in Brazil.
• The United States Department of Treasury in TARP-related matters.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTIONS:

• Symphony Capital, a private equity fund, in phase I and II pharmaceutical research and development joint ventures.
• the U.S. Department of Energy as lender in connection with its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.

Bob was appointed to the Board of Regents of Georgetown University in 2014. Bob serves as co-chair of the Esoteric Assets subcommittee of the Structured Finance Industry Group.

Bob received his B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1986 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1989, where he was an articles editor of the New York University Law Review.

Practices

• Corporate
• Finance
• Media & Entertainment
  

Education

• J.D., New York University School of Law, 1989
• B.S.F.S., Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1986

Bar Admissions

• New York
• New Jersey

See Library Tab for articles, publications and presentations by Robert Zochowski