Previously in PETITION. Part II (Short Tony the Tiger)

In June 23rd’s “Plastic is Ripe for a Reckoning (Long Ridiculous Branded Water)and in a short follow-up on June 30, we talked about how plastic has a bullseye on it. In the latter, we wrote:

Meanwhile, we were curious whether all of this talk about aluminum and glass taking over for plastic was having an effect elsewhere. Compare the bids for Anchor Glass Container Corp’s $150mm second lien term loan maturing 2024:

On May 6, the bid was 55.6 with a yield-to-worst of 25.2%.

On June 24, the bid was 71.4 with a yield-to-worst of 18.5%.

Long bullishness on glass containers?

S&P clearly doesn’t think so:

Here we go again again again? @SPGlobalRatings recently downgraded Anchor Glass to CCC+, asserting its capital structure is unsustainable. Leverage projected to stay close to 10x. The glass bottle maker filed for Chapter 11 three times, most recently in 2005.

— David Elman (@_davidelman) September 11, 2019

Here is where the second lien term loan traded this week: 70.7.

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Retail Roundup (Some Surprising Results; More Closures)

Retail Remains in a State of Transition

• Macy’s ($M) reported earnings earlier this week and surprised to the upside - particularly with the news that its sales grew in the latest quarter (after 2.75 years of consistent decline). Most of the upside came from cost control measures (and the expansion of its off-price offering, Backstage). Likewise, Dillard’s.

• Toys R Us entered administration in the UK.

• Charlotte Russe earned itself what we would deem a “tentative” upgrade after consummating an out-of-court exchange transaction that delevered its balance sheet. S&P Global cautioned that it expects “liquidity to be tight” over the next 12 months.

• Chico’s FAS Inc. ($CHS) reported same store comp sales down 5.2% and indicated that it closed 41 net stores in 2017, including 14 net stores in Q4. Net income and EPS was higher.

• Foot Locker ($FL) intends to close net 70 stores in 2018 after closing net 53 stores in 2017.

• Kohl’s Corp. ($KSS) is becoming a de facto co-retailing location after first partnering with Amazon ($AMZN) and now Aldi.

• JCPenney ($JCP) announced that it is cutting full-time employees and increasing use of part-time employees instead. Total sales rose 1.8% but missed estimates. Comparable sales rose 2.6% and net income, ex-tax reform benefits, was down 6.6%.

• Office Depot ($ODP) reported comp store sales declines of 4% and total sales down 7%. It closed 63 stores, including 26 in Q4. Note that we’re not reporting net closures: the company didn’t open any stores.

• Supervalu may be shutting down 50 Farm Fresh Supermarkets in North Carolina and Virginia.

GNC Makes Moves (Long Brand Equity, Meatheads & Chinese Cash)

GNC Buys Itself Some Time

GNC Holdings Inc. ($GNC) reported earnings recently and, to the chagrin of distressed folks who probably hoped it would be a bigger, messier bankruptcy filing than Vitamin World, the company doesn't look slated for bankruptcy court after all. At least not in the short term. The company reported EPS up $0.18 YOY on a $12.2mm drop in consolidated revenue (weighed down primarily by wholesale). Margins increased by nearly 2% - mostly on account of cost cutting initiatives (which include the closure of 90 locations in 2017). The company reported $196.7mm of free cash flow. That's more than Netflix!

The company is using its cash to pay down its revolver and, as of 12/31/17, had no borrowings outstanding. The company also looks close to an amend and extend of its term loan for two years to 2021 - as of Valentine's Day, the company had garnered the support of nearly 50% of its term lenders. Net debt to EBITDA is 4.6x. The company expects to see a short-term hit on account of the tax reform (limitations on net interest and expensing of capital investments) but a long term benefit.

Interestingly, GNC's brand demonstrated that it still retains some value - even if that value isn't what it once was. CITIC Capital, a Chinese investment fund and controlling shareholder of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, will inject a $300mm cash infusion in the form of a convertible perpetual preferred security with a 6.5% coupon (cash or PIK) at a $5.35 conversion price. As-converted, this represents roughly 40% of GNC’s outstanding equity. It will also take 5 board seats. The deal is contingent upon the amend-and-extend and a refi of the current revolver. 

But wait. There's more. GNC will also form a JV in China whereby it will drop its current China business into the JV for a 35% interest and $22mm cash payment; it will recognize wholesale sales and receive annual royalty fees, including a $10mm advance on annual royalties. Clearly GNC needed some liquidity now. And clearly this is a branding deal: GNC's brand will be slapped onto Harbin Pharmaceutical Group's product.

We suppose its a good idea to generate value out of your IP BEFORE filing for bankruptcy rather than after. S&P Credit Ratings seemed to think so: it issued an upgrade. While this likely means GNC will stay out of bankruptcy (for now), these transactions, in total, do reflect stress in the franchise. We'll have to keep a close eye on it to see where it goes from here. 

Will TOM SHOES Be Another Victim of Private Equity?

Is Blake Mycoskie's Company in Distress?

NPR’s “How I Built This” podcast featuring TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie is great. But it footnotes a big piece of the TOMS story and neglects another entirely: that Mycoskie sold 50% of the company to private equity firm, Bain Capital. And that the company has debt currently trading at distressed levels and faces a potential liquidity crisis.

Let’s take a step back. TOMS Shoes Inc. is an unequivocal success story and Blake Mycoskie is deserving of praise. He took an idea that was originally meant to be purely charitable and created a company that scaled from $300k of revenue in year one to $450mm in revenue in year seven. His "buy-one-give-one" model has resulted in millions without shoes now having shoes. And the model itself has been copied by Warby Parker, Bombas, and others, across various businesses. 

That said, for us, this tweet sparked a renewed interest in the company. Many have speculated for years that the TOMS story isn’t all rainbows and unicorns and that there are unintended consequences that emanate out of the one-for-one model. The report referenced in the tweet drives this point home. 

Why is this important now? Because the charity narrative is critical to TOMS. The company cannot afford for the public to sour on the message. Particularly since the company hasn’t been doing so hot lately. Revenue fell nearly 24% YOY in Q2 and EBITDA fell 72% YOY to $5mm. Cash is thinning and the leverage ratio is fattening. S&P downgraded the company back in August. The company's $306.5mm senior secured Term Loan is trading at distressed levels down in the mid 40s, a marked decline from the mid 70s in the beginning of ’17. And that is up from a week or so ago, when it was in the low 40s: this partnership with Apple ($AAPL) and Target ($TGT) helped pump the quote. For those who don't deal in the world of restructuring or distressed investing, a plunge of loan value by nearly 100% is, well, quite obviously a terrible sign. This means, plainly, that the market is pricing in the very real possibility that TOMS will default (and won't be able to pay back its loan in full). 

A positive? There are no near term maturities: the $80mm revolver is due in 2019 and the term loan is due in October 2020. Still, at Libor+550bps, the interest rate on the term loan is a minimum of 6.5% which is a cool $21mm in annual interest expense. And that’s before interest rates rise. The company looks like it will have trouble sustaining its capital structure and there’s no indication that the addition of new SKUs will help the company grow into it. With that interest expense, liquidity is going to get tighter. Those of you paying attention have heard this leveraged-buyout-gone-awry-lots-of-interest-expense story before: it’s the same one as Toys “R” Us, rue21, Payless Shoesource, & Gymboree. 

According to S&P, the wholesale business is feeling the trickle down effect of pervasively battered retail with inventory orders on the decline. In a thus far successful effort to maintain margin, TOMS is focusing on operational streamlining. We are guessing that some kind of financial advisor is in there (anyone know?). At a certain point, there are only so many costs you can take out of a business. Does anyone think the wholesale business is set to reverse course anytime soon given the state of retail? We don't. 

Which brings us back to NPR’s podcast. Celebrating how something is built is great and, again, we are big fans. The series has featured a variety of awesome episodes (email us for recs). But it bothered us that we weren't given the whole story. It's not sexy, we get that, but the company's debt load, interest expense, and private equity history should have been the last chapter. What comes next is to be determined.