New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Specialty Retail Shops Holding Corp. (Shopko)

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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

New Chapter 11 Filing - Gordmans Stores Inc.

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Gordmans Stores Inc.

  • 3/13/17 Recap: Clearly Warren Buffett doesn't own this dog. The Omaha, NE-based publicly-traded (GMAN) specialty retailer (apparel and home fashions) with 72 stores in 16 states (according to PE sponsor Sun Capital Partners) or 106 stores in 22 states (according to the company) filed bankruptcy to continue the 5-month long evisceration of Sun Capital Partners' retail portfolio. Oh, and liquidate. Choice quote: "It is likely that other retailers may commence chapter 11 cases in the near term, as retail is set to replace the troubled oil and gas industry as the most distressed sector this year." Just in case anyone is scratching their heads as to how this liquidation could possibly be happening, note that e-commerce made up less than 1-percent of the Company's sales. This REALLY begs the question: what value was Sun Capital Partners bringing to the table? Do they not have operating partners? Sheesh.
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Nebraska
  • Capital Structure: $68.75mm RCF (Wells Fargo) + $31.25mm RCF (PNC Bank NA) of which $29mm in total outstanding, $30mm TL (Wells Fargo - $15mm, Pathlight - $7.5mm & Gordon Brothers Finance - $7.5mm)($27.9mm outstanding). 
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Jayme Sprayragen, Patrick Nash, Brad Weiland, Jamie Netznik, Alexandra Schwarzman) & Kutak Rock LLP (Lisa Peters, Jeffrey Wegner)
    • Financial Advisor: Clear Thinking Group LLC (Joseph Marchese)
    • Investment Banker: Duff & Phelps Securities LLC (Joshua Benn)
    • Proposed Stalking Horse Liquidators: Tiger Capital Group LLC & Great American Group LLC
    • Claims Agent: Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC (*click on company name for docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Wells Fargo Bank, NA
      • Legal: Riemer & Braunstein LLP (Donald Rothman, Steven Fox) & Greenberg Traurig LLP (Jeff Wolf) & (local) Croker Huck Kasher DeWitt Anderson & Gonderinger LLP (Robert, Gonderinger, David Skalka)
    • Sponsor: Sun Capital Partners
      • Legal: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP (Neil Herman)
    • Potential Bidder: Hilco Merchant Resources LLC & Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC
      • Legal: Paul Hastings LLP (Chris Dickerson, Matthew Murphy, Marc Carmel) & (local) Telpner Peterson Law Firm LLP (Charles Smith, Nicole Hughes)
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
      • Legal: Frost Brown Todd LLC (Ronald Gold, Douglas Lutz, Adam J. (A.J.) Webb) & (local) Koley Jessen PC (Brian Koenig)
      • Financial Advisor: Province Inc. (Paul Huygens)

Updated 4/14/17