💥Big Battles Loom in Rite-Aid Bankruptcy. Part II.💥
ATI Physical Therapy & Qurate Retail, EBIX & Cano Updates
As the Rite Aid Corporation (formerly $RAD, now $RADQ) docket got carpet bombed with discovery related issues, we noticed that — amidst the chaos — the retention application for the debtors’ proposed investment banker, Guggenheim Securities LLC (“Guggenheim”), dropped. Why is this relevant? Fees, baby, fees.
Indeed, we previously mentioned that there was quite a lot of chatter about fees at early hearings in the case:
The debtors expressed their concerns (“Many retail debtors liquidate because of administrative fee burn (here, approximately $1.2 million a day in professional and U.S. Trustee fees alone”) and counsel to the tort committee (“TCC”) noted theirs (“I just want to point out that between dip financing fees, dip financing approved interest, debtor professionals and the CRO, the company is projected to pay about $400mm in a six to nine month case.”). Was there something specific about the debtors’ professionals’ fees here that had the TCC especially on alert? Let’s take a look at Guggenheim’s proposed retention.