Hedge funds have adopted a new tactic in the distressed debt wars, arguing in a New York lawsuit filed on Tuesday that heavy-handed deals violate US anti-monopoly and cartel laws.
Manulife’s CQS, Algebris Funds and Deltroit Asset Management claim they were cut out of a deal that handed a group of other similarly situated bondholders disproportionate economic benefits in a debt restructuring earlier this year.
The lawsuit, which relates to the recent restructuring of Swiss vending machine operator Selecta, represents the first time that competition law has been invoked as an alleged charge of wrongdoing in the increasingly fractious realm of distressed debt litigation.