Renegotiating a legacy offtake without breaking the counterparty.
A ten-year offtake was underwater against the current curve. Terminating would trigger arbitration; leaving it would compound losses.
The counterparty had every legal reason to hold the line. The client had every commercial reason to move. Neither could afford the reputational cost of a public fight.
Three moves.
Read the other side
Mapped the counterparty's own commercial pressures — their board expectations, their downstream contracts, their capex cycle. Found three points of shared interest neither side had raised.
Reframed the ask
Turned a price renegotiation into a term-restructure: extended tenor, adjusted volume flexibility, revised indexation. Both sides gained.
Kept it quiet
Negotiated bilaterally over four months. No advisors on the counterparty side were ever formally engaged. Deal closed via a single amendment.
€48M annual margin recovery on the client's side. Contract preserved through 2030. Counterparty relationship intact — the two parties have since transacted on two further mandates.
"The best renegotiations look, in hindsight, like nothing much happened."