Estudios de caso

Receivership of Insolvent Pistachio Processor

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La situación

A vertically integrated grower and processor of pistachios, with over $85M in senior secured principal and interest outstanding, became insolvent and operations were paralyzed due to years of mismanagement and an inefficient processing facility. After defaulting on its debt obligations, the company's senior secured lenders moved to appoint a receiver to protect their collateral, preserve principal, and oversee the wind-down or sale of assets.

Nuestro asesoramiento

As receiver, we recovered and distributed over $71M to the secured lenders in approximately ten months. Las claves del éxito fueron las siguientes:

  • Assuming control of all company assets spanning six California properties, including a 40-acre pistachio processing facility with a 39-acre wastewater application site;
  • Re-engaging and managing disenfranchised employees through clearly defined goals, expectations, and incentive compensation plan;
  • Increasing marketable pistachio inventory poundage and value by nearly 80%, from $21.2M to $37.7M, by identifying and remedying improper inventory management practices and resuming processing operations;
  • Quickly identifying and fulfilling the opportunity to generate approximately $14M in incremental liquidity by selling a substantial quantity of low-quality inventory to a rapidly growing, Dubai-based chocolatier with advanced payment;
  • Executing a comprehensive process to sell the 40-acre processing facility for $32.5M via public auction by retaining an investment banker, preparing due diligence, and conducting site tours;
  • Strategically negotiating with stalking horse bidder to exclude assets and equipment considered redundant from its bid for the processing facility, then auctioned such assets for $1.6M to competitors to improve lender recoveries; and
  • Working with counsel to subrogate $14M of grower liens to the senior secured lenders, boosting secured recoveries by the same amount.

Nuestras soluciones

  • Improperly stored inventory was deteriorating with a non-operating plant and no sales plan, potentially compromising collateral value and the lenders' recovery. Our team provided support by:
    • Quickly retaining, building, leading, and aligning incentives with a sales team, enabling the receivership to significantly outperform the company’s sales expectations.
    • Immediately restarting the idle plant and developing collateral protection and sales plans.
    • Designing and staffing a plan to clean, organize, and properly store pistachios to preserve collateral value.
    • Categorizing inventory by grade to optimize sale prices for the benefit of the receivership estate.
  • Certain nut inventory was of low quality and only suitable as input for a manufactured product. Our team:
    • Partnered with the company’s sales team to identify and capitalize on a viral chocolate bar trend, “The Dubai Chocolate Bar,” to find customers for the company’s low-quality nuts.
    • Exceeded the company’s sales forecast, substantially improving the secured lenders’ principal recovery to nearly 100%, by negotiating with an international buyer in Dubai to purchase inventory for $14M with advance payments.
  • Company equipment and miscellaneous assets were spread across six facilities, making it difficult to locate and identify due to inaccurate inventory lists and locational data. We leveraged our expertise to:
    • Design and implement an exhaustive lotting and tagging process to optimize capital recovery.
    • Consolidate equipment storage locations to reduce warehousing costs and simplify the sales process.
    • Successfully negotiate with the stalking-horse bidder to divide assets into two lots for auction: 1) plant and 2) equipment, attracting additional bidders and generating an incremental $1M recovery for the secured lenders.

Contacto clave:

Stephen Potts, MBA, CIRA
Director
Práctica de Asesoría Estratégica
+1 617 701 9003
[email protected]

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> Servicios Fiduciarios - Administradores judiciales, cesionarios, fideicomisarios
Ofrecemos soluciones imparciales y especializadas en situaciones judiciales y extrajudiciales que requieren la intervención de una tercera parte fiduciaria, como la insolvencia, el fraude, los litigios y las disputas de accionistas. Prestamistas, abogados, tribunales federales y estatales y organismos reguladores federales nos recomiendan o nos nombran fiduciarios de empresas que atraviesan dificultades, que están inmersas en litigios complejos o cuando se sospecha que ha habido fraude.

 

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Desde la estrategia hasta la ejecución, ayudamos a los clientes a superar desafíos empresariales complejos y lograr un valor comercial a largo plazo y sostenible. Las soluciones que prestamos parten de una combinación de especialización técnica, científica, financiera y estratégica, y una comprensión sin igual de los activos tangibles e intangibles.

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