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2.2(a) in all its glory
2.2(a) “Successor” means, subject to Section 2.2(c), the entity or entities, if any, determined as follows:
(vii) in respect of a Reference Entity which is not a Sovereign, if one entity assumes all of the obligations (including at least one Relevant Obligation) of the Reference Entity, and at the time of the determination either (A) the Reference Entity has ceased to exist, or (B) the Reference Entity is in the process of being dissolved (howsoever described) and the Reference Entity has not issued or incurred any Borrowed Money obligation at any time since the legally effective date of the assumption, such entity (the “Universal Successor”) will be the sole Successor for the entire Credit Derivative Transaction.
You really will want to see the Nutshell™ version here, as ISDA’s crack drafting squad™ disappears down the rabbit hole of predicting all the manifest ways the wizards of M&A — and Bank recovery and resolution for that matter —can contrive to make one Reference Entity — the one in your Confirmation — turn into one or more other ones.
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The JC’s famous Nutshell™ summary of this clause
One way of digesting all of this is as follows, which we offer disclaimed of all responsibility:
You may have questions. We have questions. The options don’t seem to scan, to use a term from poetry.
75+% Successors
If there is one successor to three-quarters or more of the Reference Obligations, logically there can’t be any succeeding entities accounting for more than 25%, since there aren’t that many Reference Obligations left. and if the Reference Entity in still in existence, it is a shallow husk of the entity it was: it cannot have a quarter of its old Reference Obligations for the same reason.