Skip to main content
ABI Journal

Asset Sales Committee

asset-sales

As we navigate 2025, we anticipate that distressed asset sales will continue to gain momentum. The current economic landscape has created both challenges and opportunities for businesses, making M&A and asset sales a prominent strategy for companies looking to restructure, grow, or acquire valuable assets at a lower cost.

While corporate restructuring is an option financially distressed companies often proactively explore to reduce their debt burden, another alternative that has recently gained some notoriety is a liability management transaction (LMT).

When a business is in financial trouble, sometimes the best way out is to sell the business as some form of a going concern. Such a sale usually yields more than a piecemeal liquidation of the assets. Losses to creditors are minimized, as are losses to guarantors of debt.

In late 2024, struggling retailer and chapter 11 debtor Big Lots Inc. and its debtor affiliates (together, “Big Lots” or the “debtors”) attempted a § 363 sale of substantially all of their assets to an entity affiliated with Nexus Capital Management LP.

In the realm of bankruptcy auctions, the goal is to maximize proceeds for stakeholders through a process that is transparent and beyond reproach. This article discusses strategies for running a pre-auction process to choose a stalking horse, ensuring that no stone is left unturned in the pursuit of maximizing value.

Nomination Deadline: February 28, 2025

Criteria

  • Completion of a distressed sale (in or outside of court via § 363, a plan, an assignment for benefit of creditors, Article 9, receivership, etc.) that was strategic and provided stakeholders with value (“Sale”);
Co-Chairs Corner

As we wrap up another incredible year, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of our members and reflect on our accomplishments together. It's been a year of growth, challenges and successes, and we're excited to share the highlights with you in this final newsletter of 2024.

Co-Chairs’ Corner

Co-Chairs’ Corner

Hello and thank you to our existing members, and a warm welcome to those who have recently joined us. We hope this newsletter finds you well, and we look forward to seeing all of you in the coming year.

Launched in 2014, Shift Technologies was a consumer-centric, omnichannel retailer for buying and selling used cars with the goal of improving the customer car-buying experience.[1] The company went public in 2020 via a de-SPAC merger and thereafter effectuated a number of strategic acquisitions, including the acquisition of complementary online vehicle

More than half of the private hospitals in this country are run by nonprofits.[1] In California, that figure may exceed 70%.[2] It has been well documented that health care bankruptcies are on the rise, and that these health care bankruptcies often result in the sale of substantially all of the health care non

Rethinking the Asset Sale

This panel focuses on emerging tools that can be used in auctions and sale processes, including the use of social media and other technology.

Several U.S. bankruptcy courts recently have recognized CCAA reverse vesting orders in chapter 15 cases, but not without some reservations as to their breadth and effect. This panel will discuss the use of reverse vesting orders to effect asset sales in cross-border transactions.

The recipients of ABI's 2023 Health Care Asset Sale of the Year award will discuss the company's threatened suspension by the California Medi-Cal program and the execution of a strategy that initially had led to court orders stopping the suspension, then later culminated in the sale of assets. Hear specifically how Borrego's professionals navigated complex health care, regulatory and bankruptcy issues, which ultimately resulted in a settlement and sale that ensured the continuation of high-quality, culturally competent care to Borrego's patients and a substantial recovery for creditors.

This panel will identify the unique issues that come into play in health care asset sales, from hospitals to senior living facilities. The panelists will address closing challenges, regulatory issues, HIPPA/privacy issues, Opco/Propco issues and much more.

Non-Monetary Defaults

This panel will discuss what happens when lenders default on paying borrowers for non-monetary reasons, such as covenant or compliance violations on real estate loans like debt-coverage-ratio violations. The lenders’ goal is to regain possession of the real estate for investment purposes and deploy it at higher interest rates. The panelists will discuss the impact and efficacy of this strategy from all angles: institutional lender-side, borrower-side and investor-side.

On February 8, 2023, Evelyn Meltzer and Kyle Ortiz, co-chairs for the International Committee, co-hosted the 2023 Look Ahead with members of the Asset Sales Committee. Evelyn and Kyle discussed what the committee has been up to as well as future events and speaking and writing opportunities for committee members. Click here to watch the video of this event.

Asset Recoveries in Foreign Lands

This panel will discuss some of the more interesting aspects of the asset-recovery process as it relates to locating foreign assets (i.e., Russian yachts). The panelists also will focus on post-COVID-19 issues, including situations where banks were not monitoring collateral as closely as they should have been and are now having trouble locating said assets and selling them, particularly in international cases where the bankruptcy is abroad but the parties are seeking recognition in the U.S.

This panel will focus on covering lenders’ perspectives on chapter 11 strategy and options, such as note sales, out-of-court restructurings or formal bankruptcy sales, and will discuss lenders’ and borrowers’ perspectives on regulatory challenges and procedural issues, such as anti-trust and environmental concerns, that are sometimes raised during a bankruptcy case, as well as issues with § 363 sales, DIP milestones and restructuring support agreements.

Marijuana-related businesses are being denied access to bankruptcy relief in all but a tiny handful of cases. This webinar will discuss prospects for success in bankruptcy court, available alternative methods of affording relief to troubled cannabis businesses, and possibilities for changes in the regulatory climate.

We will take a deeper dive into some of the more interesting and unique local rules that practitioners should be aware of when completing assets sales in various districts. The panelists will also discuss the need for local rules, differences across jurisdictions, and the process for revisions and implementation.

Randye B. Soref

Randye B. Soref

Co-Chair

Los Angeles, CA

Polsinelli

(310) 556-1801

Jane Kim

Jane Kim

Co-Chair

San Francisco, CA

Keller Benvenutti Kim LLP

(415) 364-6793

Thomas S. Kessler

Thomas S. Kessler

Communications Manager

New York, NY

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

(212) 225-2000

Christopher M. Candon

Christopher M. Candon

Education Director

Manchester, NH

Sheehan, Phinney, Bass + Green

(603) 627-8168

Steven L. Victor

Steven L. Victor

Membership Relations Director

Chicago, IL

Development Specialists, Inc.

(312) 263-4141

William Hao

William Hao

Newsletter Editor

New York, NY

Alston & Bird LLP

(212) 210-9417

Hayley G. Harrison

Hayley G. Harrison

Special Projects Leader

Boca Raton, FL

Wernick Law PLLC

(561) 961-0922

Amy A. Quackenboss

Amy A. Quackenboss

Executive Director

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Karim Guirguis

Karim Guirguis

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Chris S. Thackston

Chris S. Thackston

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Carolyn M. Kanon

Carolyn M. Kanon

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Robin Davis

Robin Davis

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Robin Davis

Robin Davis

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

Jourdana Claibourn

Jourdana Claibourn

Staff

Alexandria, VA

American Bankruptcy Institute

(703) 739-0800

lease note that in order to view the content for the Committee Newsletters you must either Sign in if you are already an ABI member, or otherwise you may Become an ABI Member