🛫New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Ravn Air Group Inc.🛫

Ravn Air Group Inc.

April 5, 2020

Ravn Air Group Inc. and seven affiliates (the “debtors”), owners and operators of aircraft providing air transportation and logistics services to passenger, mail, charter and freight markets in Alaska, filed for bankruptcy in the District of Delaware. In addition to individual passengers, the debtors service, primarily through three airlines, the oil and gas industry, the seafood industry, the mining industry and the travel and tourism industries. Substantial shareholders include private equity firms W Capital Partners and J.F. Lehman & Company.

This is a COVID-19 story. The debtors highlight the seasonal nature of their business — high costs in Qs one and four and robust business in Qs two and three. COVID-19 hit Alaska, in earnest, on March 12 when the Governor of Alaska confirmed the first case of coronavirus in Alaska on live television. There was an immediate impact: revenues decreased 80-90% YOY as passengers stopped flying and local communities sought to cease passenger flights into their region. Eight days later, the State of Alaska issued a strong advisory to all Alaskans to stop all non-essential travel. As you can imagine, all of these things coalesced to create a harsh negative cash flow scenario for Ravn.

How harsh? Merely 11 days after the initial case announcement, the debtors announced layoffs. Four days later, they announced a second round. The debtors pivoted to survival mode but all of the cost-saving measures in the world couldn’t overcome the near-total loss of revenue coming in. Efforts to find a financing solution outside of bankruptcy did not materialize. Per the debtors:

Through the month of March, the Debtors engaged in extensive negotiations with the Prepetition Secured Parties regarding the future of the Debtors and their operations, their ability to weather the COVID-19 pandemic with or without assistance (including grants and loans under the CARES Act), and the willingness of the Prepetition Secured Parties to provide bridge financing in light of the foregoing. These negotiations (as well as the discussions with government officials described below) were made all the more difficult because of the inherent uncertainty regarding how long and the extent to which the current COVID-19 operating environment will last, as well as the fact that they were conducted telephonically, rather than inperson, as a result of COVID-19.

Wait. Zoom Video Communications Inc. ($ZM) isn’t the end-all be-all savior it’s been made out to be?!? Go figure.

These debtors now also serve as Exhibit A to the argument that the federal government ought to have acted sooner to pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) and put into place mechanisms for getting that much-needed capital out to the businesses that need it. The debtors add:

Separately, the Debtors also spoke with high-ranking representatives of the State of Alaska and the federal government. Unfortunately, by the end of March 2020, it became clear that any state or federal government financial assistance or other relief was not going to be available before the Debtors ran out of cash and had to suspend operations.

Eesh. Now that’s sh*tty timing. They pushed through an application on April 3, the first day to do so, but liquidity was so low that the debtors couldn’t make payroll. A bankruptcy filing, therefore, became necessary in order to nail down DIP financing to pay employee wages and, through the efforts of a skeleton crew, administer the bankruptcy cases. At the time of the actual filing, even the DIP documentation wasn’t complete.

  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware (Judge )

  • Capital Structure: $90.9mm RCF (BNP Paribas)

  • Professionals:

    • Legal: Keller Benvenutti Kim LLP (Tobias Keller, Jane Kim, Thomas Rupp) & Blank Rome LLP (Victoria Guilfoyle, Stanley Tarr, Jose Bibiloni)

    • Financial Advisor: Conway MacKenzie LLC

    • Claims Agent: Stretto (*click on the link above for free docket access)

  • Other Parties in Interest:

    • Prepetition & DIP Agent: BNP Paribas

      • Legal: Winston & Strawn LLP (David Neier, Carrie Hardman) & Ashby & Geddes PA (William Bowden, Gregory Taylor)

    • Large equityholders: W Capital Partners

New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - Patriot National Inc.

Patriot National Inc.

  • 1/30/18 Recap: Once publicly-traded ($PN, delisted) Florida-based tech and outsourcing solutions services provider to the insurance services space (primarily in the workers' compensation sector) has finally filed the prearranged bankruptcy it announced back at the end of November. This company's downfall is a lesson in making sure that a company's customer base is well-diversified. Here, one insurer, Guarantee Insurance Company, accounted for 55% of the policies serviced by the debtors and a similar percentage of the debtors' gross revenues. In November 2017, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation notified the Florida Department of Financial Services of its determination that GIC ought to be in receivership. Which is what then happened. Whoops. The loss emanating out of this occurrence "was particularly severe." The company was also in default under its Financing Agreement with Cerberus Business Finance LLC. This perfect storm led to a negotiation and restructuring support agreement with Cerberus and TCW Asset Management Company, which will convert a portion of their claims under the financing agreement into 100% of the company's equity. The lenders will provide a $15.5mm DIP credit facility.
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
  • Capital Structure: $223mm debt (Cerberus Business Finance LLC)    
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP (Kathryn Coleman, Christopher Gartman, Jacob Gartman) & (local) Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP (Laura Davis Jones, James O'Neill, Peter Keane)
    • CRO/Financial Advisor: Duff & Phelps LLC (James Feltman)
    • Financial Advisor: Conway MacKenzie Management Services LLC
    • Claims Agent: Prime Clerk LLC (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest: 
    • DIP Lender: Cerberus Business Finance LLC
  • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
    • Legal: Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP (David Posner, Gianfranco Finizio, Kelly Moynihan) & (local) Morris James LLP (Carl Kunz III, Brenna Dolphin)
    • Financial Advisor: Province Inc. (Sanjuro Kietlinski)

Updated 4/2/18

New Chapter 11 Filing - Central Grocers Inc.

Central Grocers Inc.

  • 5/4/17 Recap: May the Fourth be with you. Illinois-based food coop - the 7th largest in the nation - founded in, gulp, 1917, filed for bankruptcy to pursue a sale of its Strack & Wan Til stores and its distribution center (after certain creditors tried to force a bankruptcy on it). The company was initially founded with 32 supermarket owners seeking increased purchasing power through strength in numbers. Today, the coop supplies over 400 stores in the Chicago area. The coop supports its own brand, Centrella, which, being frank here, is probably value detract because nothing says "quality" like shoddy label design. That "Beef Stew" and "Chunk Pineapple" (see below) looks tasty AF, doesn't it? This makes us want to blow chunks. Seriously, though, this is another story of disruption. Disruption caused by the commodities markets, in part, with beef, chicken, eggs and dairy generally being at relatively low prices. But also disruption caused by new entrants into the grocery segment, including Walmart, TargetCostco, and dollar stores. And, of course, Amazon, which is increasingly becoming Darth Vader, even though we're pretty certain nobody we know actually uses AmazonFresh for produce and the like. But, whatever, when in doubt, blame Amazon. That's a much better excuse than 1917-style design sensibility and a classic innovator's dilemma.
  • Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware (transferred to N.D. of Illinois)
  • Capital Structure: $225mm '18 RCF (PNC Bank NA), $22.5mm TL (Bank of the West)  
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Weil (Ray Schrock, Stephen Karotkin, Sunny Singh, Daniel Gwen, Danielle Donovan) & (local) Richards Layton & Finger PA (Mark Collins, Paul Heath, Brett Haywood, David Queroli) & (local) McDonald Hopkins LLC (David Agay, Rion Vaughan)
    • Financial Advisor: Conway MacKenzie Inc. (Donald Harer, Alpesh Amin, Michael Musso, John Cannon, Matthew Sedigh, Daniel Johnson, Lauren Leach, Harry Bramson, Jennifer Chaing, Joseph Wirija, Michael Kulkarni, Michael Flynn)
    • Investment Banker: Peter J. Soloman Company (Derek Pitts)
    • Claims Agent: Prime Clerk LLC (*click on company name for docket)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • PNC Bank NA
      • Legal: Blank Rome LLP (Regina Stango Kelbon, Victoria Guilfoyle, Mark Rabinowitz, Gregory Vizza, Michael Schaedle)
    • Bank of the West
      • Legal: Thompson Coburn LLP (Mark Bossi, Victor Des Laurier, Diona Rogers)
    • Successful Bidder
      • Legal: Duane Morris LLP (Lawrence Kotler, Rosanne Ciambrone)
    • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
      • Legal: Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP (Todd Meyers, David Posner, Gianfranco Finizio) & (local) Saul Ewing LLP (Mark Minuti, Lucian Murley) & (local) Arnstein & Lehr LLP (Barry Chatz, Kevin Morse, William Williams)
      • Financial Advisor: FTI Consulting Inc. (Conor Tully)

Updated 7/13/17

http://www.central-grocers.com/

http://www.central-grocers.com/