Specialty Retail Shops Holding Corp. (Shopko)

January 16, 2019

Sun Capital Partners’-owned, Wisconsin-based, Specialty Retail Shops Holding Corp. (“Shopko”) filed for bankruptcy on January 16, 2019 in the District of Nebraska. Yes, the District of Nebraska. Practitioners in Delaware must really be smarting over that one. That said, this is not the first retail chapter 11 bankruptcy case shepherded by Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Nebraska (see, Gordman’s Stores circa 2017). K&E must love the native Kool-Aid. Others, however, aren’t such big fans: the company’s largest unsecured creditor, McKesson Corporation ($MCK), for instance. McKesson is a supplier of the company’s pharmacies and is a large player in the healthcare business, damn it; they spit on Kool-Aid; and they have already filed a motion seeking a change of venue to the Eastern District of Wisconsin. They claim that venue is manufactured here on the basis of an absentee subsidiary. How dare they? Nobody EVER venue shops. EVER!

Anyway, we’ve gotten ahead of our skis here…

The company operates approximately 367 stores (125 bigbox, 235 hometown, and 10 express stores) in 25 states throughout the United States; it employs…

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• Jurisdiction: D. of Nebraska

• Capital Structure: see report.    

• Company Professionals:

  • Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (James Sprayragen, Patrick Nash Jr., Jamie Netznik, Travis Bayer, Steven Serajeddini, Daniel Rudewicz) & (local) McGrath North Mullin & Kratz P.C. LLO (James Niemeier, Michael Eversden, Lauren Goodman)

  • Board of Directors: Russell Steinhorst (CEO), Casey Lanza, Donald Roach, Mohsin Meghji, Steve Winograd

  • Financial Advisor: Berkeley Research Group LLC

  • Investment Banker: Houlihan Lokey Capital Inc. (Stephen Spencer)

  • Liquidation Consultant: Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC

    • Legal: Riemer & Braunstein LLP (Steven Fox)

  • Real Estate Consultant: Hilco Real Estate LLC

  • Claims Agent: Prime Clerk LLC (*click on company name above for free docket access)

• Special Committee of the Board of Directors

  • Legal: Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

  • Financial Advisor: Ducera Partners LLC

• Other Parties in Interest:

  • Wells Fargo Bank NA

    • Legal: Otterbourg PC (Chad Simon) & (local) Baird Holm LLP (Brandon Tomjack)

  • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (HanesBrands Inc., Readerlink Distribution Services LLC, Home Products International NA, McKesson Corp., Notations Inc., LCN SKO OMAHA (MULTI) LLC, Realty Income Corporation)

    • Legal: Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP (Jeffrey Pomerantz, Bradford Sandler, Alan Kornfeld, Robert Feinstein) & (local) Goosmann Law Firm PLC (Joel Carney)

    • Financial Advisor: FTI Consulting Inc. (Conor Tully)

    • Expert Consultant: The Michel-Shaked Group (Israel Shaked)

Updated 3/9/19