A lender’s entitlement to a make-whole premium, that is, a prepayment penalty designed to compensate the lender for the loss of interest payments it would have received had the borrower continued to service the debt through the maturity date of the loan, depends principally on the plain language of the bond indenture or credit agreement. See, e.g., HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Calpine Corp. (In re Calpine Corp.), No. 07 Civ 3088 (GBD), 2010 WL 3835200, at *4 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 15, 2010) (after reviewing the debt instruments, the district court agreed with the bankruptcy court insofar as it held that the lenders were not entitled to make-whole premiums because the plain language of the debt instruments did not provide for the payment of premiums in the event of payment pursuant to acceleration); In re Solutia, Inc., 379 B.R. 473, 485 n.7 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2007) (where the indenture provided for automatic acceleration upon the filing of a chapter 11 petition but was silent as to whether any make-whole amount would or would not be payable in connection with such an acceleration, the court refused to “read into agreements between sophisticated parties provisions that are not there,” and held that no make-whole amount was due); Premier Entm’t Biloxi, LLC v. U.S. Bank N.A. (In re Premier Entm’t Biloxi LLC), 445 B.R. 582, 625-27 (Bankr. S.D. Miss. 2010) (trust indenture that provided for automatic acceleration of notes upon default arising from debtors’ bankruptcy filing rendered the notes mature at time of their repayment as part of consummation of debtors’ confirmed chapter 11 plan, such that noteholders had no contractual right to prepayment premium).
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