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Ritz Camera Centers,
headquartered in Beltsville, MD, is the largest photo specialty retail
chain in the U.S. Operated under the Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera brands,
the Company maintained approximately 800 stores that generated $1
billion of revenue prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
in February, 2009. Upon the Chapter 11 filing, the Company went through
an operational restructuring that included closing all but 375 of the
larger footprint stores and dramatically reducing SG&A.
David Ritz and Fred
Lerner on behalf of RCI Acquisition and team members Scott Neamand, Steve LaMastra
and Tom Hermann spearheaded an effort to buy the Company out of Chapter
11 and maintain it as a going concern. Facing a stalking horse bid from
a private equity firm and competing bids from the country's largest
liquidators, RCI Acquisition outlasted all other bidders after a 24
hour all night auction on July 21 to emerge as the highest and best bid
and only offer to maintain Ritz Camera Centers as a going concern. The
sale was approved by Judge Mary Walrath of
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on July 23 and
closed on July 24, 2009. To learn more about Ritz Camera Centers, go to
www.ritzcamera.com.
SSG was retained by
David Ritz and the RCI Acquisition team to structure,
negotiate and raise the capital required for the acquisition. "In
a retail and credit environment that has resulted in the liquidation of
most retailers forced into Chapter 11, it was a great success to save Ritz Camera Centers
and the jobs of thousands of employees," said David Ritz, CEO of
Ritz Camera Centers and RCI Acquisition. "SSG's
unique and extensive experience in special situation M&A
transactions gave us the creditability, creativity and tenacity to get
the deal done," said Fred Lerner, President of Ritz Interactive
and RCI Acquisition.
If you would like to
learn more about SSG or inquire about the Ritz Camera Centers transaction,
please contact one of the SSG deal team members.
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Other
professionals who worked on the transaction include:
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Derek
Abbott, Walter Tuthill, Tarik
Haskins, Matt Harvey, Greg Donilon and
Curtis Miller of Morris, Nichols, Arsht
& Tunnell LLP, counsel to RCI
Acquisition, LLC.
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Irv Walker,
Norm Pernick, Gary Leibowitz
and Karen McKinley of Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard, P.A., counsel to
the Debtor.
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Marc Weinsweig, Robert Duffy, Charlie Reeves and Steve
Coulombe of FTI Consulting, financial advisors
to the Debtor.
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Cathy Hershcopf, Jay Indyke,
Brent Weisenberg and Lesley Kroupa of Cooley Godward
Keronish LLP, counsel to the Creditors
Committee.
·
Tim Hurley, Dan Polsky
and Narendra Ganti
of Deloitte, financial advisor to the Creditors Committee.
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