New Chapter 11 Filing - BCBG Max Azaria Global Holdings LLC

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BCBG Max Azaria Global Holdings LLC

  • 3/1/17 Recap: Fashion powerhouse founded in 1989 filed for bankruptcy yesterday with a plan to optimize optionality: within the next six months, the company will dual track a potential debt-for-equity transaction (its second in 2 years) and a sales process to allow the business to continue as a going concern. This process comes on the heels of an operational restructuring which dramatically decreased the company’s brick-and-mortar footprint, with ~120 of ~550 stores already closed and attendant headcount reductions initiated. This is another sad retail story: macro retail headwinds (read: Amazon and decreased brand loyalty), too much debt, poor wholesale and IP licensing strategies, and too much unjustifiable stateside and global growth. Make no mistake: Amazon is a big story in all of this recent retail bloodshed but these bankruptcies wouldn’t be happening if that story wasn’t compounded by tunnel vision and poor strategy - here, marked, notably, by no recognizable online presence. Now, the restructuring professionals are going to earn their keep, devising a fast-track multi-tier process to try and keep this thing out of the liquidation bin. On an aside, we'd like to point out that, again, Simon Property Group and GGP Limited Partnership have made notices of appearances in this case so anyone who says that the A Mall operators are unharmed by the recent bloodbath in retail is smoking crack. Footnote: neither Twitter nor Sears can catch a break; they are both owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Jurisdiction: S.D. of New York
  • Capital Structure: ~$460mm debt. $82mm ABL Facility (Bank of America), $35mm TL Tranche A, $4.2mm TL Tranche A-1, $48.5mm Term Loan Tranche A-2, $0 (undrawn) Term Loan Tranche A-3, $289.4mm Term Loan Tranche B (Guggenheim Corporate Funding LLC).     
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Jayme Sprayragen, Christopher Marcus, Joshua Sussberg, Benjamin Rhode, John Luze)
    • Financial Advisor: AlixPartners LLC (Holly Feder Etlin, Deborah Reiger-Paganis)
    • Investment Banker: Jefferies LLC (Jeffrey Finger)
    • Liquidators: Hilco Merchant Resources LLC & Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC
      • Legal: Malfitano Partners (Joseph Malfitano)
    • Claims Agent: Donlin Recano (*click on company name for docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Bank of America (as ABL DIP Agent and Prepetition ABL Agent)
      • Legal: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP (Julia Frost-Davies, Christopher Carter, Robert Barry, Matthew Ziegler)
    • Guggenheim Corporate Funding LLC (as TL DIP Agent and Prepetition Tranche B TL Lenders)
      • Legal: Weil (Matthew Barr)
    • Allerton Funding LLC
      • Legal: Winston & Strawn LLP (Daniel McGuire, Gregory Gartland)
    • Silvereed (Hong Kong) Limited
      • Legal: Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP (Robert Schmidt, Jonathan Wagner)
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (GGP Inc. & Simon Property Group)
      • Legal: Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP (Robert Feinstein, Bradford Sandler, Jeffrey Pomerantz, Maria Bove)
      • Financial Advisor: Zolfo Cooper LLC

Updated 3/28/17