💥What's the Deal(EO)?💥

A new one to watch, Liberated Brands, Jervois, Lodging Enterprises + More.

January started off hot out of the gate but then fizzled towards month’s end. The month featured only two cases with debt loads > $1b (Ligado Networks Corp. and Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.) and with one other exception (JOANN Inc., $616mm of debt), the sweet spot was … gulp … sub $250mm. Yes, sub $250mm.

February isn’t exactly off to a rockin’ start either. Yes, shockingly Zips Car Wash LLC, a PE roll-up of car wash businesses, accumulated roughly $644mm of term loans, and, yes, it’s now in bankruptcy to pursue a plan of reorganization that will shed roughly $279mm of that $644mm off its balance sheet. But otherwise, the filings thus far in February have been lame as f*ck. That descriptor encompasses Liberated Brands LLC, too, but that didn’t stop us from having some fun with it below.

In addition to that situation, today we spend some time discussing a recent executive order that might reverberate through the retail sector, addressing some recent filings, revisiting some old filings, and initiating coverage on a new name. Let’s dive in. 💪