Great Tweet: Bon-Ton Stores Gets (Short-Term) Lifeline
Bon-Ton Stores Gets Credit Flex Leading into Holidays
This kinda speaks for itself. Sycamore Partners, meanwhile, may be sniffing around...
This kinda speaks for itself. Sycamore Partners, meanwhile, may be sniffing around...
Busted Tech. Joyus, an online shopping platform that relied heavily on video, shuttered this past week announcing in a leaked memo that it would undertake an assignment for the benefit of creditors. The company had no venture debt but did raise nearly $70mm from Accel Partners, a Time Warner venture arm and investors affiliated with a Walmart ($WMT) venture affiliate.
Healthcare. Community Health Systems ($CYH) announced its preliminary Q2 financial and operating results and they weren't very pretty. Net operating revenues were down nearly $400mm relative to the same quarter last year. Categorical losses, however, were generally lesser than the year before. The stock - and that of spun-off Quorum Health Corporation ($QHC) took a dive after the report. Meanwhile, smaller ($1-10mm) healthcare providers continue to file for bankruptcy.
Noble Group. With $3b of debt and various other issues, lots of folks are souring on the name.
Och-Ziff. We've heard of camp counselor bonuses from satisfied parents but this $280mm package takes things to a whole new level. Also, long luck.
Pure Unsupported Fantasy. Otherwise known as Sycamore Partners' claim that Dollar Tree Stores submarined the Family Dollar merger. So Dollar Tree says, anyway.
Sears Canada. And we thought we were aggressive with some of our commentary:nice headline. Meanwhile, it appears that Eddie Lampert and Bruce Berkowitz couldn't figure out a way to get along in the sandbox, calling off their joint effort to bail out the embattled Canadian retailer. Now ESL Partners LP may sell some of its stake to take a tax loss. Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Management LLC increased its holdings not too long ago.
Shopping Holidays. Get ready because it is undoubtedly coming. Fresh on the heels of Amazon Prime Day, other retailers are getting jiggy with it (looking at you Walmart and JD.com) and intend to start their own shopping holidays. Looks like the big retailers want to make Labor Day even more pointless.
IPO'ing a retailer these days takes plus-sized cajones.Torrid ($CURV), a California-based plus-sized retailer for women which spun out of Hot Topic will be listed on the NYSE for its upcoming IPO. The company is backed by Sycamore Partners. It posted a loss of $29.1mm for the fiscal year ended '17 on sales of $640mm. Surprisingly, other recent retail IPOs, e.g., Canada Goose ($GOOS), have performed remarkably well.
Loan Deficiencies. Some interesting numbers here.
Oncor. Warren Buffett to the rescue? Perhaps, perhaps not. It seems there may be competition for the asset. It looks like Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP stand to make good fees on the transaction if it goes through.
Staples. Details on Sycamore Partners' proposed LBO financing here.
Takata Corp. More professionals with a seat at the table.
Dividend Recaps. Apparently they are not an exclusively American phenomenon.
Golf. The best one of us shot a 125 last week so take what we're about to say with a (bitter) grain of salt: golf is pretty lame. Okay, fine, we'll backtrack and admit: we're getting into it but we definitely can see why millennials aren't biting, why Golfsmith filed for bankruptcy and why Nike straight-up cancelled its golf line. Still, a lot of lawyers, bankers, investors, (douchebags,) and advisors play. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that golf is, in the words of Malcolm Gladwell, "crack cocaine for rich white guys." Read: a lot of you. Which is why we're bothering to mention it. Anyway, speaking of Gladwell, the new season of his solid podcast is up and you can listen to his first episode on the subject of golf here. It's worth the time - especially if you live in Los Angeles.
Molycorp. Lots of fighting going on over the rare metals miner.
Sycamore Partners. The private equity shop is reportedly nearing a deal for Staples ($SPLS) for a reported $6b.
WeWork. What happens to the upstart when the cycle turns? We reckon a lot of 363 lease rejections motions, that's what.
3D Printing. We've previously noted the potential game changing effect of advancements in 3D printing technology. This view - from the bloggers at UPS - is a little more tempered but interesting nonetheless.
Brookfield Asset Management. Interesting.
Energy M&A. Reportedly, Vistra Energy Corp. is making moves to take over Dynegy Inc.
Gearing for Battle. Elliott Management is hiring to prepare for a restructuring wave (firewall).
Short Coke & Pepsi (read: Bottled Water). On one hand, the volume of plastic water bottles is absurd and harmful to the environment...we get that. On the other hand, however, do we really need a BtoB subscription service for...wait for it...NYC tap water?!? We're split as to whether this is "notable" for its earnest save-the-environment vibe or for its "is this really a frikken problem in need of solving" vibe. We're leaning towards the latter.
Smoking-More-Crack.live. A nice little ranty blogpost from a petulant Eddie Lampert.
Sun Capital Partners & Sycamore Partners. The firm is looking to sell British bedding retailer Dreams - which it acquired out of administration back in 2013 - with Chinese companies in the mix to bid. Rothschild is the investment banker. Meanwhile, to avoid seeing another portfolio company in bankruptcy court, the firm has agreed to, in the event of a rights offering, recapitalize Vince Holding Corp. ($VNCE) with $30mm. Meanwhile, this was an interesting piece on Sycamore Partners and its potentially evolving strategy (though it neglected to acknowledge how dire Nine West is beginning to look).
Trickle Down Economics. Bullsh*t.