New CCAA Filing - Sears Canada Inc.

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Sears Canada Inc.

  • 6/22/17 Recap: No one saw this dumpster fire coming. That's sarcasm, ya'll. Riddled with debt, a burdensome $267mm pension liability, a pattern of declining earnings (see below), and a 1950s sensibility that nobody is interested in, this penny stock ($SCRC) was bound to end up in bankruptcy court. Negative net cash flows have ranged from $30-$100mm per month for the past five months. Hence the "dumpster fire" comment: that's some serious cash burn. Yiiiikes. So, what, in addition to filing for bankruptcy, do you do when your company has sh*t the bed so badly that its brand equity is strongest as a punchline? You step up the marketing game by shunning the term "restructuring" and deploying the flashier descriptor "reinvention" instead. Or toss some pixie dust in the air and come up with "Sears 2.0". Because nobody will know the wiser. Anyway, Sears Holdings ($SHLD) notably holds 12% of SRSC so presumably that 12% is now worth 0% but we wouldn't put it past Eddie Lampert to pull a bunny out of a hat. Somehow. But what do we know: we've never even stepped foot in Ontario. Ps. SHLD traded up nearly 3% on the news. Pss. The Company intends to close at least 59 of 200 locations and layoff 2900 people - all pursuant to a $450mm cumulative DIP credit facility. 
  • Jurisdiction: Ontario Superior Court of Justice
  • Capital Structure: $300mm '19 senior secured debt (Wells Fargo)($170mm funded inc. LOCs), $94mm TL (funded)(GACP Finance Co. LLP, KKR Capital Markets LLC, TPG Specialty Lending Inc.); major shareholders (ESL Investments Inc., Fairholme Capital Management Inc.)    
  • Company Professionals:
    • Monitor: FTI Consulting Canada Inc. (Greg Watson, Paul Bishop, Jim Robinson, Steven Bissell, Linda Kelly, Kamran)
    • Monitor Legal: Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP (Orestes Pasparakis, Virginie Gauthier, Alan Merskey, Evan Cobb, Alexander Schmitt, Catherine Ma)
    • Company Legal: Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP (Marc Wasserman, Jeremy Dacks, Michael De Lellis, Tracy Sandler, Shawn Irving, Martino Calvaruso, Karin Sachar)
    • Financial Advisor: BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • $300mm DIP ABL Agent: Wells Fargo Capital Finance Corporation Canada
      • Legal: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Ryan Jacobs, Jane Dietrich, R. Shayne Kukulowicz, Tim Pinos, Lara Jackson, Ben Goodis)
      • Financial Advisor: Alvarez & Marsal (Doughas McIntosh, Al Hutchens, Joshua Nevsky)
    • $150mm DIP Term Agent: GACP Finance Co. LLP
      • Legal: Goodmans LLP (Joe Latham, Jean Anderson, Dan Dedic, Graham Smith, Jason Wadden, Ryan Baulke)
    • Board of Directors
      • Legal: Bennett Jones LLP (Gary Solway, Raj Sahni, Sean Zweig)
    • Active Employees and Retirees
      • Legal: Koskie Minsky LLP (Andrew Hatnay, Mark Zigler)

Updated 7/11/17 6:11 pm

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