EYP Group should qualify competing bid for assets, committee says

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., June 9 – EYP Group Holdings, Inc.’s official committee of unsecured creditors asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to compel the debtor to qualify a bid from Page Southerland Page, Inc. for its assets, according to a motion filed Thursday.

As previously reported, the company had canceled a Wednesday auction after receiving no qualified bids, and said it would seek court approval to sell the assets to the stalking horse bidder, which is senior secured lender Ault Alliance, Inc., a private equity firm owned by BitNile Holdings, Inc., formerly known as Ault Global Holdings, Inc.

The purchase price under the stalking horse agreement is $67.7 million, which consists of a credit bid of up to $11.75 million, consisting of the amount under the company’s $5 million debtor-in-possession facility and the full amount of the debt owed under the company’s senior secured facility, with the remainder of the consideration consisting of cash and assumed liabilities.

However, on Monday, the committee filed a motion to extend the auction to Friday so that Page could establish financing in order to have the bid qualified, and thus hold an auction.

“A robust auction is obviously in the best interests of the estates,” the committee had said.

The court granted the committee’s motion on Tuesday, and Page posted a $10 million deposit to the debtor’s account, which the debtor will keep if Page fails to close the transaction. The stalking horse has made no deposit, the committee noted.

Page has also received a term sheet from Bank of America for a $50 million revolving line of credit to help fund the purchase of the assets, the committee said.

However, when asked about qualifying Page’s bid, the company expressed that the competing bid might encourage the stalking horse to terminate its asset purchase agreement or call a DIP default.

The committee said it will object to the sale if the stalking horse is selected as winning bidder.

The sale hearing is scheduled for June 22.

Albany, N.Y.-based EYP is an integrated design firm specializing in higher education, health care, government and science & technology. It filed bankruptcy on April 24 under Chapter 11 case number 22-10367.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.