Perfumania: Prepack Bankruptcy, Small Equity Consideration

Here is another small special situation -- Perfumania (PERF) is the largest specialty retailer and distributor of fragrances and related beauty products in the United States, they've suffered from the Amazon effect and resulting decrease in mall traffic like many other specialty retailers.  On August 26, Perfumania filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, primarily as a way to bring their mall landlords to the table as they explicitly call out that significant landlords would only negotiate with them if the company was in bankruptcy.  All of their other creditors will be unimpaired including the controlling family, the Nussdorfs, who are both their largest creditor and equity shareholder.

The Nussdorf family owns just under 50% of the equity, they're proposing to pair up with another large investor, the Garcia family, to recapitalize the company and inject $14.2MM into Perfumania.  Their plan is to take the company private and then shutter much of the 226 retail store footprint, instead focusing on the distribution side of the business.  In order to speed things along and ensure a quick stay in bankruptcy, they're throwing a bone to the minority shareholders by giving "the opportunity to receive consideration of $2.00 per share in exchange for completing a shareholder release form."  The company's financial advisers call it a "gift" and that the company has no value on a going concern basis.

There are some NOLs here to protect, and the Nussdorf family has loaned the company $85MM, their interests are somewhat aligned to see this company restructured and perform well moving forward.  But time is critical for any retail turnaround story, hence the need to rid themselves of any delay from angry shareholders.  The opt-in date for the shareholder release form is 10/6/2017, or less than a month away, and shares currently trade for just over $1.80 per share representing a fairly decent short term return opportunity.  There's risk here, if the deal gets pulled or the plan doesn't get approved by the court (both seem unlikely?), we already know the equity is worthless, size appropriately.

Disclosure Statement: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/880460/000088046017000031/exhibit991disclosurestatem.htm

Disclosure: I own shares of PERF