New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC

American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC

January 27, 2020

Man. The restaurant space is active AF when it comes to BK filings these days. Sysco Corporation ($SYY) must be sweating bullets. On the same day that BL Restaurants Holding LLC (Bar Louie) filed for bankruptcy and a mere week after The Krystal Company filed and less than six months after industry segment brother Perkins and Marie Callender’s filed for bankruptcy, Tennessee-based American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC and four affiliated entities — the operators of 75 Village Inn and 22 Bakers Square family dining restaurant brands — filed for bankruptcy in the District of Delaware — the 8th significant bankruptcy filing in Delaware in 2020 (far outpacing any other jurisdiction).

This filing may come as a surprise to some. Why? Well, this August 2019 article in the Nashville Post dripped with optimism about the company’s proposed turnaround — a turnaround which included 50 pre-petition store closures. Despite these efforts, the debtors revenues were only $318mm in ‘19, a decline of $36mm.

Unlike BL Restaurants Holding LLC (Bar Louie), the debtors aren’t drowning in funded debt. In fact, they don’t have any secured debt at all. Unsecured claims total only $14mm.

They are, however, drowning due to industry-wide issues. If the factors leading to this filing sound familiar, well…they are:

  • Increased competition in the restaurant business. ✅

  • Increased competition from grocery stores’ expanded prepared meai offerings which, by and large, represent a much better value proposition. ✅

  • Rising labor costs ($2mm hit). ✅

  • Above-market rent. ✅

  • Declining foot traffic due to “an increase in convenience via takeout and delivery at the expense of dine-in customers at restaurants.” DISRUPTION!! ✅

  • Over-expansion. ✅

For all of these reasons, the debtors have been bleeding cash. They lost $11mm in ‘18 and $7mm in ‘19. So, sure, the turnaround was taking hold, it seems, but the $4mm in savings weren’t enough. Indeed, the debtors’ filing was precipitated due to a lack of liquidity.

The debtors will use the “breathing spell” provided by the filing to access $20mm in emergency liquidity (from their indirect ultimate majority owner, Cannae Holdings Inc. ($CNNE)) and pursue strategic options (without a banker….uh…ok, sure).


  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware (Judge Silverstein)

  • Capital Structure: N/A

  • Professionals:

    • Legal: KTBS Law LLP (Michael Tuchin, David Fidler, Jonathan Weiss, Sasha Gurvitz) & Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP (Robert Poppiti Jr.)

    • Claims Agent: Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC (*click on the link above for free docket access)

  • Other Parties in Interest:


New Chapter 11 Filing - Open Road Films LLC

Open Road Films LLC

9/6/18

Rough year for movie production houses. After Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company filed chapter 11 cases earlier this year, Open Road Films LLC now finds itself in bankruptcy court. The company behind Jobs, Nightcrawler and other mostly forgettable films has had a dramatic fall from grace after being acquired by current equityholder TMP Holdings from Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment merely a year ago. Though contemplated at the time of acquisition, the company was unable to secure funding to, among other things, restructure the company (in the out-of-court sense) and streamline operations. The question is why? Why couldn't the company secure funding? 

The company notes:

Among other things, increased volatility in overall film performance exacerbated investor concerns regarding the probability and predictability of studio financial success, especially outside of the major studios. This overall volatility was exacerbated by the specific underperformance of certain of the Company’s recent motion picture releases, most of which were initiated by prior management. In addition, competitive options for consumers limit interest in theatrical distribution and the traditional film business model, imposing additional pressure on companies like the Debtors, and further fueling investor skepticism.

In other words, blame Reese Witherspoon ("Home Again" flopped), Jodie Foster ("Hotel Artemis" completely bombed) and Netflix ($NFLX). 

With no incoming funding and a resultant inability to obtain a "going concern" qualification, the company defaulted on its loan with Bank of America. BofA, therefore, limited access to certain deposit accounts, all the while vendors were seeking payments. Already this drama is more interesting than "Home Again." 

The company intends to use the chapter 11 process to market and sell its assets; it does not yet have a stalking horse bidder, though FTI reports that 11 parties have submitted indications of interest. 

The top 40 general unsecured creditors list is a who's who of media elites, including "old media" firms like Viacom Inc. (owed $7mm), The Walt Disney Company (owed $5.1mm), NBCUniversal (owed $4.4mm), Turner Broadcasting System (owed $3.5mm). Other top creditors include Google, Facebook, Snap, Twitter, Amazon, Spotify, and Pandora Media. And Latham & Watkins, which appears to be getting hosed on a half million dollar legal bill. 

  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware (Judge Silverstein)
  • Capital Structure: $90.75 mm secured debt (Bank of America NA)     
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Klee Tuchin Bogdanoff & Stern LLP (Michael Tuchin, Jonathan Weiss, Sasha Gurvitz, Whitman Holt) & (local) Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP (Michael Nestor, Sean Beach, Robert Poppiti Jr., Ian Bambrick)
    • Financial Advisor/CRO: FTI Consulting Inc. (Amir Agam)
    • Claims Agent: Donlin Recano & Company Inc. (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Prepetition Lender: Bank of America NA
      • Legal: Paul Hastings LLP (Andrew Tenzer, Shlomo Maza) & (local) Ashby & Geddes PA (William Bowden)
    • Prepetition Creditor: East West Bank
      • Legal: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (David Staber) & (local) Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLC (Christopher Samis, L. Katherine Good, Aaron Stulman)
    • Prepetition Creditor: Bank Leumi USA
      • Legal: Reed Smith LLP (Marsha Houston, Christopher Rivas, Michael Sherman

New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC

Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC

  • 12/4/17 Recap: Real estate finance and development company focused on buying, improving, and selling high-end luxury homes has filed for bankruptcy. It is a "group of companies" because there are literally scores of individual debtor properties that are set up in special purpose vehicles (Propcos) wholly-owned by other related special purpose vehicles (Holdcos). It's like Inception: an SPV within an SPV. 140 Propcos are debtors and 127 Holdcos are debtors. As you can imagine, there are a ton of intercompany transfers here. The company has been the subject of an SEC investigation since September 2016 on the basis of "potential securities law violations, including the alleged offer and sale of unregistered securities, the sale of securities by unregistered brokers, and the commission of fraud in connection with the offer, purchase and sale of securities." Indeed, the company allegedly raised over $200mm from retail investors. But, wait: there's more. The company has also received information requests from state securities regulators in "approximately" 25 states. PETITION NOTE: what do they mean by "approximately"? There are a finite number of states. Have the requests become SO VOLUMINOUS that they company has lost track of how many there've been? The company has secured a $100mm DIP credit facility from Hankey Capital LLC and attempts to have a plan of reorganization confirmed by the end of 2018. 
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware (Judge Carey)
  • Capital Structure: $750mm seller financing.    
  • Company Professionals:
    • Current Legal: Klee Tuchin Bogdanoff & Stern LLP 
    • Previous Legal: Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Samuel Newman, Oscar Garza, Daniel Denny, J. Eric Wise, Matthew Kelsey, Matthew Porcelli) & (local) Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP (Sean Beach, Edmon Morton, Ian Bambrick, Allison Mielke)
    • Current Restructuring Advisor/CRO: Development Specialists Inc. (Bradley Sharp) 
    • Previous Restructuring Advisor: SierraConstellation Partners LLC (Larry Perkins, John Farrace, Robert Shenfeld, Reece Fulgham, Miles Staglik, Lissa Weissman)
    • Independent Manager of Affiliate: Beilinson Advisory Group LLC (Marc Beilinson)
    • Claims Agent: Garden City Group (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • DIP Lender: Hankey Capital LLC
      • Legal: Buchalter (William Brody, Paul Arrow) & (local) Richards Layton & Finger PA (John Knight, Christopher De Lillo)
    • Former CEO: Robert Shapiro
      • Legal: DLA Piper LLP (US) (Eric Goldberg, Stuart Brown)

Updated 3/24/18 9:45 CT

New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Limited Stores Company LLC

Limited Stores Company LLC

  • 1/17/17 Recap: Sun Capital owned multi-channel retailer with 250 locations (down from a peak of 750) filed for bankruptcy to continue its Hilco-assisted liquidation and sell its IP and e-commerce channel for a proposed ~$25.5mm sum to Sycamore Partners. Looks like some "A Malls" owned by Simon Property Group and GGP Limited Partnership just got nicked.  
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
  • Capital Structure: $50mm RCF (unfunded, BofA), $13.4 TL (Cerberus Business Finance LLC)   
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP (Domenic Pacitti, Michael Yurkewicz)
    • Financial Advisor: RAS Management Advisors LLC (Timothy Boates)
    • Investment Banker: Guggenheim Securities LLC (Durc Savini, Ryan Mash, Michael Gottlieb, Ben Loveland, Justin Kundrat, Grace Dai)
    • Sponsor: Sun Capital Partners Inc.
    • Claims Agent: Donlin Recano (*click on company name for docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Cerberus Business Finance LLC
      • Legal: Klee Tuchin Bogdanoff & Stern LLP (Michael Tuchin, David Fidler, Jonathan Weiss)
    • Sycamore Partners
      • Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (James Stempel)
    • TradeGlobal LLC
      • Legal: Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP (Elliot Smith) & (local) Polsinelli PC (Christopher Ward)
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
      • Legal: Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (Jason Adams, James Carr, James Shickich, Kristin Elliott) & Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP (Bradford Sandler, James O'Neill)
      • Financial Advisor: CBIZ Accounting Tax and Advisory of New York (Esther DuVal)

Updated 3/30/17

New Filing - Garden Fresh Restaurant Intermed. Holdings LLC

Garden Fresh Restaurant Intermed. Holdings LLC

  • 10/3/16 Recap: Operator of 123 farm-sourced self-serve restaurants under the Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes brands seeks expedited sale after suffering cash flow pressure from sector headwinds, workers' comp liability, minimum wage and health benefit pressures and rent increases.  
  • 8/8/17 Update: Perpetual Capital Partners and CR3 Capital LLC acquired the reorganized company for an undisclosed amount.
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
  • Capital Structure: ~$195mm of funded debt     
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Morgan Lewis (Neil Herman, James Moore, Benjamin Cordiano, Katherine Lindsay) & (local) Young Conaway (Kenneth Enos, Michael Nestor, Ian Bambrick, Michael Neiburg, Travis Buchanan)
    • Financial Advisor: RAS Management Advisors LLC (Timothy Boates, Michael Rizzo)
    • Investment Banker: Piper Jaffrey (Teri Stratton, Peter Schwab, Jean Hosty, John Twichell, Jason Wang, Cooper Ziecik, Galen Hand)
    • Real Estate Advisor: Hilco Real Estate LLC (Ryan Lawlor)
    • Claims Agent: Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions, LLC
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Term Loan A Agent: Cerberus Business Finance LLC
    • Term Loan B Agent & DIP Lender: Cortlandt Capital Market Services LLC
      • Legal: Holland & Knight LLP (Barbra Parlin) & (local) Pachulski Stang (Laura Davis Jones)
    • Term Loan C and Term Loan D Agent: Apollo Investment Management
    • Other Lenders:
      • Ares Capital Corporation, Beach Point Capital, Sun Capital
    • UCC:
      • Legal: Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (Lauren Schlussel, Jason Adams, Eric Wilson, Scott Fleisher, Charlie Liu) & (local) Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Steven Kortanek, Joseph Argentina, Robert Malone)
      • Financial Advisor: Province Advisors (Paul Huygens, Thomas Jones, Carol Cabello, Jorge Gonzalez, Jin Dong)

Updated - Done