New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Air Force Village West Inc. (d/b/a Altavita Village)

Air Force Village West Inc. (d/b/a Altavita Village)

March 10, 2019

Another day, another continuing care retirement community in bankruptcy. Here, Air Force Village West Inc. (d/b/a Altavita Village), a California non-profit corporation with 361 residents filed for bankruptcy in the Central District of California. We’ve covered how CCRCs operate in some recent bankruptcy filings (e.g., 😷New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Mayflower Communities Inc. (d/b/a The Barrington of Carmel)😷 and 😷New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - SQLC Senior Living Center at Corpus Christi Inc. (d/b/a Mirador)😷) and so we don’t necessarily see the point in repeating the business basics here. Suffice it to say: the CCRC business model requires some modifications. “The company has been operating at a loss and cannot pay its liabilities as they mature.” No sh*t.

Naturally, debt is part of the issue. The company owes $66mm in alleged secured indebtedness to its prepetition lenders; it has been in payment default since March 2017. The lenders subsequently sued for the appointment of a receiver and succeeded. After the receiver was in place, the receiver, the debtor and the lenders pursued a two-year sale process with two bankers (failed) and, then later, Cushman & Wakefield (“C&W”). C&W was able to locate a stalking horse bidder, Westmont Development LP, an affiliate of Westmont Living Inc., for a 363 sale of the debtor’s assets while in bankruptcy. In light of the fact that the company already pursued a robust sale process, it seeks to consummate the sale transaction by June 2019.

• Jurisdiction: C.D. of California (Judge )

• Professionals:

  • Legal: Dentons US LLP (Samuel Maziel, Tania Moyron, Gary Marsh, Bryan Bates)

  • Investment Banker: Cushman & Wakefield US Inc.

  • Claims Agent: KCC (*click on the link above for free docket access)

• Other Parties in Interest:

😷New Chapter 11 Filing - Verity Health System of California Inc.😷

Verity Health System of California Inc. 

8/31/18

Verity Health System of California Inc. ("VHS"), a California nonprofit public benefit corporation that operates six acute care hospitals, filed for bankruptcy today. The system suffered from decades of operating losses and too much debt. Unfortunately, it also appears to have suffered from a lack of vision, admittedly maintaining the status quo in the face of robust headwinds. 

In 2015, BlueMountain Capital Management LLC purchased the system for $100mm while also arranging for $160mm in loans (subject to a variety of conditions imposed by the California Attorney General). The health system, however, did not turn around. In 2017, NantWorks LLC acquired a controlling stake in the system's management company, Integrity, from BlueMountain and loaned the company an additional $148mm. Did this do the trick?

Of course not. We wouldn't be writing about it if it did. 

Per the company:

Despite the infusion of capital and new management, it became apparent that the problems facing the Verity Health System were too large to solve without a formal court supervised restructuring. Thus, despite VHS’ great efforts to revitalize its Hospitals and improvements in performance and cash flow, the legacy burden of more than a billion dollars of bond debt and unfunded pension liabilities, an inability to renegotiate collective bargaining agreements or payor contracts, the continuing need for significant capital expenditures for seismic obligations and aging infrastructure, and the general headwinds facing the hospital industry, make success impossible. Losses continue to amount to approximately $175 million annually on a cash flow basis.

Indeed, the company cites the following factors for its fall into bankruptcy: (i) below-market Medicare reimbursement rates (~20-43% below market), (ii) an approximate 5% increase in labor rates annually, (iii) underfunded pension plans and ongoing pension funding requirements in the millions of dollars, (iv) the need for tens of millions of dollars in IT investment, (v) millions of dollars of expenditures required under the conditions imposed by the California state AG and (vi) needed medical equipment expenditures. 

Accordingly, to confront its debt and preserve the value of the system as a going concern, the system filed for bankruptcy to pursue a sale to new ownership/leadership. 

• Jurisdiction: C.D. of California 
• Capital Structure: $461.4mm of secured debt     
• Company Professionals:
  • Legal: Dentons US LLP (Samuel Maizel, John Moe II, Tania Moyron)
  • Financial Advisor: Berkeley Research Group LLC
  • Investment Banker: Cain Brothers
  • Claims Agent: KCC (*click on company name above for free docket access)
• Other Parties in Interest:

New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - Shiekh Shoes LLC

Shiekh Shoes LLC

• 11/29/17 Recap: More retail in bankruptcy. Here, the retailer of footwear, apparel and accessories aimed at the urban subculture has filed for bankruptcy. Of note, the company has 124 specialty retail store locations across ten states; it also owns "e-tailer" Karmaloop, which, itself, was in bankruptcy a few years ago. Interestingly, the Karmaloop transaction is now riddled in controversy and serves as a cautionary tale to any purchaser of distressed retail assets like customer lists which, as we've seen from a variety of retail bankruptcies of late, is often one of the more "valuable" assets a retailer has. Data, baby, data! Of course, the data needs to be current and relevant as opposed to technologically engineered and enhanced. Which, the company alleges, is exactly what Comvest Partners did with Karmaloop's customer lists. The company notes, "The Debtor’s decision to acquire Karmaloop was based on Comvest’s representation that it had accumulated approximately 6 million unique customer email addresses, 3.7 million of which were alleged to be responsive/active consumers. After the acquisition was finalized in March of 2016, however, the Debtor found out that more than 80% of these emails were no longer valid and the overall health status of the Karmaloop email database/system was in very poor condition." The company continues, "The evidence discovered by the Debtor’s CTO and E-Commerce Director further indicated a concerted effort by Comvest/Karmaloop executives, and third party email ecommerce marketer, Klaviyo, to conceal the poor condition of the email list to give the appearance to prospective buyers that Comvest had “stabilized” losses and “grown” the business since taking over after Karmaloop’s prior bankruptcy in 2015 (out of which Comvest purchased Karmaloop). This was achieved by, among other means, constantly switching IP addresses so the company would not be blacklisted, as well as changing the code on both the Karmaloop and PLNDR sites to double-count traffic on the websites. Interestingly, the “double-pixel” (the means through which Karmaloop was doublecounting traffic on the websites to create the appearance the websites were experiencing increased traffic) was removed from Karmaloop’s website shortly before the Debtor took over and site traffic quickly nosedived. Thus, the Debtor has reason to believe Comvest knew the representations it made in the offering memoranda were false and it took affirmative steps to cover it up." As if this wasn't enough, the company also discovered that its "confidential" email list was in the possession of another business, the result of a previously-undisclosed pre-acquisition settlement between Karmaloop and a vendor. On account of these issues, it looks like the company and Comvest are primed for a bankruptcy court battle royale. Compounding matters is the company's reliance on Nike Inc. ($NKE) for product. Nike, the company notes, refused to ship product to the company without cash in advance payment; it also didn't support the company's attempted Midwest expansion. Unfortunately, that lack of support came after the company had already committed the capital to pursue said expansion. Whoopsies. Now, the company is unwinding those efforts. The company is also planning to close 31 stores. Yay #retailapocalypse! The company has no plan in bankruptcy other than to leverage the appropriate provisions of the bankruptcy code to pursue a restructuring of leases and its debt. Liquidation isn't out of the realm of possibility which, naturally, isn't great Christmas news for the company's 1,743 employees. One final note: the company noted soft sales in men's shoes (Nike and Brand Jordan): this seems consistent with the broader footwear narrative that specialty footwear and Adidas are eating into Nike's market share. 
• Jurisdiction: C.D. of California (Judge Zurzolo)
• Capital Structure: $20mm RCF (State Bank and Trust Company & Comvest Capital II LP), $15mm unsecured LOC    
• Company Professionals:
  • Legal:  SulmeyerKupetz PC (David Kupetz, Asa Hami, Steven Werth)
  • Financial Advisor:  KGI Advisors Inc.
  • Real Estate Advisors: Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC
• Other Parties in Interest:
  • Comvest Partners II LP
    • Legal: Goldberg Kohn Ltd. (Randall Klein, Dimitri Karcazes) & (local) Robins Kaplan LLP (Scott Gautier, Kevin Meek)

Updated 11/30/17

New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - Styles for Less Inc.

Styles for Less Inc.

• 11/6/17 Recap: Another retailer finds its way in bankruptcy court. Here, the company has 93 retail women's clothing stores in California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona and Florida. The company claims, in its bankruptcy papers, to "offer the hottest trendy clothing, shoes, accessories and more at discounted prices...." Which, naturally, begs the question: well then why the hell did it file for bankruptcy? Well, naturally, the company answers this question in its bankruptcy papers and its the now-typical litany of retail excuses: (i) "increased industry discounting" (read: price and margin compression), (ii) "online penetration" (read: e-commerce), and (iii) "shifts in consumer spending away from 'fast fashion' and toward services and experiences (read: Snapchat...okay, maybe NOT Snapchat...but...millennials!) - all of which have contributed to cash flow pressures and liquidity problems. We make light but this story really is becoming pandemic. And the story includes the closure of 55 brick-and-mortar locations, 311 lost jobs, and decreased pay for those who kept their jobs. To stay alive, the company continues to negotiate with landlords and pursue operational expense reductions. The company will operate using Wells Fargo Bank's cash collateral while it tries to figure out a reorganization plan. Notably, the service list includes representatives of General Growth Properties Inc. ($GGP) and Simon Property Group ($SPG). Nothing to see here.
• Jurisdiction: C.D. of California (Judge Wallace)
• Capital Structure: $915k secured debt (Wells Fargo Bank NA)
• Company Professionals:
  • Legal: Winthrop Couchot Golubow Hollander LLP (Marc Winthrop, Garrick Hollander)

Updated 11/7/17

New Chapter 11 Filing - Cornerstone Apparel Inc. (d/b/a Papaya Clothing)

Cornerstone Apparel, Inc. (d/b/a Papaya Clothing)

• 6/15/17 Recap: California-based apparel retailer targeted to the 16-25 year-old demographic and with 80 stores located in malls and shopping centers throughout the US filed for bankruptcy to take advantage of the Bankruptcy Code's "automatic stay" and have time to evaluate and rationalize its retail store footprint. Sadly, the company opted to expand at PRECISELY the wrong time as it opened approximately 50 stores in the last 6 years, incurring significant setup/startup costs in the process. Now it will need to engage in extensive negotiations with landlords to determine what, if anything, it can reorganize around. As part of the filing, the company has already identified 30 locations that it intends to exit from, if it hasn't already.
• Jurisdiction: C.D. of California (Judge Zurzolo)
• Capital Structure: No secured debt.   
• Company Professionals:
  • Legal: Levene Neale Bender Yoo & Brill LLP (Timothy Yoo, Eve Karasik, Juliet Oh)
  • Claims Agent: Rust Consulting/Omni Bankruptcy (*click on link above for free docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
      • Legal: Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP (Scott Lee, Lovee Sarenas)

Updated 8/10/17