A partner in the Finance Group, Mikhel Schecter represents financial institutions, private equity sponsors and major corporations in connection with specialized finance structures as well as securitization and asset-backed finance. She regularly advises clients in connection with securitizations involving esoteric assets such as cell towers, fiber and other infrastructure, music royalties, intellectual property royalties and restaurant and other franchised business revenues.

Some of her recent representations include:

Infrastructure Assets

Crown Castle in the financing aspects of the sale of its fiber segment to EQT Active Core Infrastructure fund and Zayo Group Holdings Inc. for a combined value of $8.5 billion
Consolidated Communications Holdings, LLC, a leading U.S. fiber communications provider, in a $3.344 billion three-part financing, including asset-backed term notes, a variable funding note facility and a secured revolving warehouse facility
TPG and KKR in Metro Communications' inaugural asset backed securitization bond offering totaling $322 million in notes, secured by fiber network assets and customer agreements
MetroNet, a telecommunications company and the largest privately-owned fiber to the premises (FTTP) platform in North America, in its securitization of over $2.847 billion of notes and numerous lending, topco and warehouse facilities, backed by MetroNet’s fiber network and infrastructure assets and customer receivables in mature neighborhoods
Ziply Fiber, in its inaugural securitization consisting of over $1.5 billion issuance of term notes and $400 million issuance of variable funding notes, secured by FTTP infrastructure, underlying rights and receivables
Ting Fiber, LLC, a subsidiary of Tucows Inc., in its securitization, secured by fiber to the home infrastructure, wireless assets and customer receivables
Barclays in numerous multibillion-dollar issuances of secured tower revenue notes by subsidiaries of Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner and manager of communication infrastructure in the U.S., backed by a portfolio of cellular sites and related assets
Barclays in numerous issuances by Diamond Communications, one of the largest privately-owned tower and wireless infrastructure companies in the U.S., backed by a portfolio of cellular sites and related assets
SBA Communications, one of the largest wireless cell tower operators in the Western hemisphere, in connection with over $6.4 billion of securitizations, backed by mortgage liens on cell towers

Whole-Business Securitization

Sonic in over $1 billion of notes issuances in its existing whole-business securitization backed by franchise-fee revenues
Wingstop Restaurants in connection with whole-business securitization backed by franchisee and company store revenue
Church’s Chicken in its whole-business securitization, backed by franchise royalties, intellectual property and company-owned store revenues
Pet Supplies Plus in its inaugural whole-business securitization backed by its distribution business, franchisee royalties and company-owned store revenue

Diamond Industry Transactions

K.G.K. Diamonds BV in its cross-border inventory securitizations backed by existing and future rough and polished diamond inventory; and in its receivables securitization
Pluczenik Diamond Company, N.V. as seller and servicer for its diamond receivables securitization and cross-border inventory securitization, backed by existing and future rough and polished diamond inventory
Stargems DMCC as seller and servicer in its securitization backed by diamond receivables

Media & Entertainment Transactions:

Bain Capital in the financing aspects of its strategic joint venture with Warner Music Group allowing for the purchase of up to $1.2 billion of iconic music catalogs across both recorded music and music publishing
MUFG Securities and Barclays as lead underwriters in a multibillion dollar music asset-backed securities deal by Blackstone-owned Recognition Music Group, a UK-based leading music rights investment and management company
the $1 billion equity and securitization financing of HarbourView, a boutique entertainment asset manager, including a $300 million securitization of music streaming royalties

Other Notable Securitization Transactions:

Coinstar, a portfolio company of Apollo, in connection with liability management amendments for its existing securitization
Apollo Global Management in the issuance of $325 million aggregate principal amount of 4.77% Series A Senior Secured Guaranteed Notes secured by a lien on Apollo’s participation interests in the rights to distributions in relation to a portfolio of equity investments owned by affiliates of Apollo in certain existing and future funds managed or advised by subsidiaries of Apollo.
Numerous portfolio companies managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in connection with accounts receivable securitizations and factoring transactions including, Atlas Air Inc., Rackspace Technologies, ABC Technologies, Wheels Donlen, Invited, Yahoo AdTech and Yahoo Inc, Covis Pharma and Lumileds Holdings.

Mikhel has recently been recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” in Legal 500 for her Securitizations work.