Senior secured note vs. Unsecured TL/revolver

Revolvers/TLs are generally more senior to bonds, but what about an unsecured TL or revolver vs. a senior secured bond? My gut says the secured debt should always be paid first, but I can't find anything on the internet mentioning a situation where bondholders are paid before term loans

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Best Response

Your intuition is correct, though it is very unlikely that a revolver or term loan lender would find themselves in a junior position relative to secured bonds (outside of certain distressed scenarios/priming transactions).

When thinking of the payment waterfall in bankruptcy, the secured creditors would be paid first. This group of creditors would include secured revolver, secured term loan, secured bond lenders, etc. The most important thing here is the security, or collateral of the instrument, and not the type of instrument. Senior secured creditors sit at the top of the capital stack, have priority claims on collateral, and may have the ability to block payments to junior debt, regardless of the type of senior secured debt security they choose to structure (e.g. secured term loan versus secured bond).

If someone were to structure an unsecured term loan and there were also secured bonds in the capital stack, then the unsecured term loan claims would be junior to the secured bondholders. The secured bonds have a claim on the collateral of the company, while the unsecured term loan does not have collateral and would be left to recover any residual value after (and if) the secured lenders are repaid.

 

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