3/10/17 Recap: Preppers alert! The Minneapolis-based outdoor retailer that specializes in guns guns and more guns has run out of "dry powder" (score!) and finds itself in chapter 11. This comes around the same time that the Cabela's/Bass merger looks to be hanging by a thread. Tough time for outdoor retail. On the brightside, folks who are so scared by the recent election can now get a break on MREs and other survival gear as they go off-grid or to Canada. So, there's that.
5/3/17 Update: The company has sold to Camping World Inc. and, attendant to the sale, entered into an agency agreement with a JV of liquidating firms noted below to handle the assets left out of the sale.
Jurisdiction: D. of Minnesota
Capital Structure: $390mm ABL (Wells Fargo Bank NA) & $35mm TL (Pathlight Capital LLC) debt
Company Professionals:
Legal: Fredrikson & Byron PA (Ryan Murphy, Clinton Cutler, Cynthia Moyer, James Brand, Sarah Olson, Steven Kinsella)
Financial Advisor: Lighthouse Management Group (Timothy Becker, James Bartholomew)
Investment Banker: Houlihan LokeyCapital Inc. (Stephen Spencer)
Real Estate Advisor: Hilco Real Estate LLC (Ryan Lawlor)
Liquidators: Tiger Capital Group LLC (Dan Kane, Michael McGrail), Great American Group LLC (Scott Carpenter, Alan Forman), Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC (Mackenzie Shea), Hilco Merchant Resources LLC (Ian Fredricks)
Legal for Liquidators: Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz (Scott Charles, Neil Snyder) & Riemer & Braunstein LLP (Steven Fox)
Claims Agent: Donlin Recano (*click on the company above for free docket)
Other Parties in Interest:
Prepetition ABL & DIP Lender: Wells Fargo Bank NA
Legal: Choate Hall & Stewart LLP (Sean Monahan, Kevin Simard)
Term Loan Agent: Pathlight Capital LLC
Legal: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP (Mark Silva, Julia Frost-Davis, Amelia Joiner)
Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Legal: Lowenstein Sandler LLP (Jeffrey Cohen, Keara Waldron, Barry Bazian) & (local) Barnes & Thornburg LLP (Connie Lahn, Peter Clark, Christopher Knapp, Roger Maldonado)
3/6/17 Recap: Indianapolis-based (and formerly publicly-traded - HGGG) brick-and-mortar retailer of appliances, consumer electronics, home products (read: all things that millennials don't buy) FINALLY filed for bankruptcy after an endless barrage of negative news stories, including reports of 88 store closures. The company's distress - brought on by trends afflicting the retail space generally and repeated to death in each and every retail bankruptcy filing, e.g., declining mall traffic, onerous leases, etc., - was exacerbated by its credit card program with Synchrony Bank and the need to post letters of credit to collateralize Synchrony's acquired receivables ($3mm paid, another $14mm owed). Note: there's a commentary here about consumer lending. The filing is intended to enable the company to continue with store closing sales and potentially find a buyer for its remaining locations.
Jurisdiction: S.D. of Indiana
Capital Structure: $300mm '21 credit facility ($56mm out)(Wells Fargo)
Company Professionals:
Legal: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP (Neil Herman, Rachel Jaffe Mauceri, Benjamin Cordiano, Katherine Lindsay, Matthew Ziegler, Michaela Dragalin) & (local) Ice Miller LLP (Jeffrey Hokanson, Sarah Fowler)
Financial Advisor: Berkeley Research Group (Robert Duffy)
Investment Banker: Stifel & Miller Buckfire & Co. (James Doak)
Liquidators: Hilco Merchant Resources LLC (Ian Fredericks) and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC (Michael Chartock)
10/30/16 Recap: New Hampshire-based publicly-traded designer, manufacturer, and distributer of sporting equipment (including Bauer Hockey and Easton Baseball) files for Chapter 11 and CCAA to effectuate an asset sale to Sagard Capital Partnes and Fairfax Financial for $575mm.
Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
Capital Structure: $200mm ABL, $330mm TL, publicly-traded equity.
Company Professionals:
Legal: Paul Weiss (Kelley Kornish, Alice Eaton, Claudia Tobler, Christopher Hopkins, Diane Meyers, Moses Silverman, Kevin) & (local) Young Conaway (Pauline Morgan, Sean Greecher, Justin Rucki, Shane Reil, Kenneth Listwak, Andrew Magaziner) & (Canadian counsel) Stikeman Elliott (Kathryn Esaw, Frank Selke, Maria Konyukhova, Peter Howard)
Financial Advisor: Alvarez & Marsal (Brian Fox, Jay Herriman, Brian Corio, Michael Stewart, Greg Karpel)
Investment Banker: Centerview Partners (Mark Puntus, Ryan Kielty, David Zubricki, Mike Klain)
Claims Agent: Prime Clerk (*click on company name for docket)
Other Parties in Interest:
Canadian Monitor: E&Y (Brian Denega, Jean-Daniel Breton, Marin Daigneault)
Legal: Allen & Overy (Ken Coleman) & (local) Buchanan Ingersoll (Kathleen Murphy, Mary Caloway) & (Canadian counsel) Thornton Grant (Robert Thornton, D.J. Miller, Rachel Bengino)
ABL DIP Agent: Bank of America
Legal: Choate Hall & Steward (John Ventola, Douglas Gooding, Jonathan Marshall) & (local) Richards Layton & Finger LLP (Mark Collins, John Knight, Brent Haywood)
TL DIP Agent: 9938982 Canada & Sagard Capital Partners
Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Christopher Marcus, George Klidonas) & (local) Klehr Harrison (Dominic Pacitti)
Financial Advisor: Rothschild Inc. (Neil Augustine)
First Lien Lenders Steering Committee:
Legal: Weil (Matthew Barr, Gabriel Morgan, David Cohen) & (local) Morris Nichols (Robert Dehney, Gregory Werkheiser) & (Canadian counsel) Goodmans (Joe Latham, Brendan O'Neill, Ryan Baulke)
Financial Advisor: FTI Consulting (Daniel Hugo)
Prepetition TL Agent
Legal: Davis Polk
Fairfax Financial
Legal: Shearman & Sterling (Fred Sosnick, Stephen Blank)
Unsecured Creditors' Committee
Legal: Blank Rome LLP (Stanley Tarr, Josef Mintz, Andrew Eckstein, Michael Schaedle) & (Canadian counsel) Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Ryan Jacobs, Hillary Fender, Monique Sassi, Natalie Levine, Shayne Kukulowicz)
Financial Advisor: Province Inc. (Paul Huygens, Victor Delaglio, Michael Winters, Sanjuro Kietlinski, Ricky Ng, Jim Dong)
Ad Hoc Equity Committee (MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC, Scoggin Capital Management LLC)
Legal: Brown Rudnick LLP (Robert Stark, Stephen Levine, Bennett Silverberg, Andrew Carty, James Stoll) & (local) Montgomery McCracken (Natalie Ramsey, Mark Fink, Davis Wright) & (Canadian counsel) McMillan LLP (Andrew Kent, Jeffrey Levine, Caitlin Fell, Stephen Brown-Okruhlik)
Financial Advisor: Houlihan Lokey Capital Inc. (Adam Dunayer, Justin Zammit, Sam Stringer, Corbon Heizer)
