💥Rite Aid Salvaged?💥
Updates: WeWork + Rite-Aid + InVivo Therapeutics + Casa Systems. ICON & Acorda File.
Holy filings Batman! April is off to a rockin’ start with new case filings and there’ve been some big updates in carryover matters from last year. Consequently, we’re going to spare you this week’s winners and losers and macro commentary other than to say that this week’s job numbers appear to give the Fed all the cover it needs to be patient on rates. With the US adding 303k jobs, the unemployment rate falling and, curiously, wages also coming down, the market is now becoming increasingly convinced that there won’t even be a rate hike in June — out of fear that the economy is, in the words of Larry Summers, “re-accelerating.” Where would he get that idea?
Which gets us to our quote of the week from BOK Financial’s Steve Wyett:
“It’s hard to find anything wrong with the March Jobs report. The only people who might be disappointed in today’s report are those looking for relief from Fed rate cuts. We still expect the next move from the Fed to be to lower rates, but there is little sense of urgency at the moment.”
It seems that those playing out options for lower rates will have to remain patient.
⚡️Update: Rite Aid Corp⚡️
We concluded our last coverage of the Ride Aid Corporation chapter 11 bankruptcy…
…on quite a sour note. We noted that the lenders, Ad Hoc Secured Noteholder Group, official committee of unsecured creditors (“UCC”), and official committee of tort claimants (“TCC”) were all duking things out over the future of the company which, in turn, had blown up the company’s case time line, prolonged bankruptcy, racked up hefty administrative expense, and called into question the very future of the company. We wrote:
From the outside looking in, it’s hard to tell for sure what the hell is going on here but we’re beginning to get, at best, the Ad-Hoc-Secured-Noteholder-Group-truly-doesn’t-want-these-assets vibes and, at worst, some Toys-R-Us-style-there’s-a-non-zero-chance-this-f*cker-liquidates-vibes, 🤷♀️. Might we be overly dramatic here? Perhaps.
And we added:
We can only imagine how hard Rite-Aid’s counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP — which already has Toys’ liquidation on its record — is pushing to keep this thing on track and avoid another major retail liquidation.
…
We certainly hope this dumpster fire isn’t as dire as it seems.
We’ll find out soon enough.
Find out we did! After months of back and forth with not only the parties noted above but also others like McKesson Corp ($MCK), the US Department of Justice (the “DOJ”), Rite Aid finally has a new plan, a new disclosure statement, and key settlements in place. And the credit doesn’t go to Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Joshua Sussberg but to someone else. Let’s dig in ⬇️.