Curo Emerges from Chapter 11 Better Positioned for Long-Term Profitable Growth
20 July 2024 - 2:45AM
Business Wire
CURO Group Holdings Corp. today announced that it has emerged
from Chapter 11 protection as Curo Group Holdings LLC (“Curo” or
the “Company”), having taken all required actions and satisfied all
remaining conditions to effectiveness of its Joint Prepackaged Plan
of Reorganization (the “Plan”), which was confirmed by the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston
Division on May 16, 2024.
“Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new chapter for
Curo,” said Doug Clark, Chief Executive Officer at Curo. “We are
emerging as a substantially stronger business and are now better
positioned to achieve long-term profitable growth. We are
incredibly appreciative of the support from all of our stakeholders
as we continue to provide our customers with a variety of
convenient, easily accessible financial services.”
The Plan relieves Curo of approximately $1 billion in debt and
not less than $75 million of annual interest obligations and will
otherwise provide for improved liquidity. The Plan provides for
payment in full of the allowed claims of general unsecured
creditors, which includes, among others, trade, customer, employee,
and landlord claims.
As previously announced, Curo’s Plan received overwhelming
support from existing stakeholders of CURO Group Holdings Corp.
constituting (1) 100% of the Prepetition 1L Term Loan Claims and
Prepetition 1.5L Notes Claims that voted on the Plan, (2) more than
99.9% of the Prepetition 2L Notes Claims that voted on the Plan,
and (3) more than 95% of existing equity interests that voted on
the Plan. The Company also obtained recognition of the Plan from
the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) (the
“Canadian Court”).
Emerging as a private company, the equity of Curo will not be
listed on any public stock exchange.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP served as legal counsel
to the Company, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP served as
Canadian legal counsel to the Company, and Oppenheimer & Co.
Inc., served as investment banker to the Company. Wachtell, Lipton,
Rosen & Katz and Vinson & Elkins LLP served as legal
counsel to the ad hoc group of Curo’s secured lenders (the “Ad Hoc
Group”), and Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. served as financial
advisor to the Ad Hoc Group.
About Curo
Curo is a leading consumer credit lender serving U.S. and
Canadian customers for over 25 years. Our roots in the consumer
finance market run deep. We’ve worked diligently to provide
customers a variety of convenient, easily accessible financial
services. Our decades of diversified data power a hard-to-replicate
underwriting and scoring engine, mitigating risk across the full
spectrum of credit products. We operate under a number of brands
including Cash Money®, LendDirect®, Heights Finance, Southern
Finance, Covington Credit, Quick Credit and First Heritage
Credit.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. In
addition, words such as “estimate,” “believe,” “forecast,” “step,”
“plan,” “predict,” “focused,” “project,” “is likely,” “guidance,”
“expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “will,” “confident,”
variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements.
The Company’s ability to achieve these forward-looking
statements is based on certain assumptions, judgments and other
factors, both within and outside of the Company’s control, that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the
effects on the Company’s business and clients of general economic
and financial market conditions, as well as the following: a liquid
trading market for the Company’s common units or warrants may not
develop; provisions in the Company’s organizational documents could
delay or prevent a change in control, or cause the price of the
Company’s common units to decline; the Company’s common units will
be subject to dilution by the Company’s management incentive plan
and warrants; existing cash balances and funds generated from
operations may not be sufficient to finance the Company’s
operations and meet its cash requirements; the Company could be
subject to cyber-attacks and other security breaches; the Company
may be unable to retain or hire key employees; the Company may be
affected by tax assessments, unfavorable tax audit outcomes,
delayed tax filings and future increased levels of taxation; and
additional risks and uncertainties, all of which may have potential
adverse effects on the Company’s business and relationships with
customers, vendors, employees, service providers and suppliers.
Additionally, the Company’s financial results following the
effective date (the “Effective Date”) of the Company’s plan of
reorganization (the “Plan”) will not be comparable to the Company’s
available historical financial information for periods prior to the
Effective Date as a result of the implementation of the Plan and
the transactions contemplated thereby and its adoption of fresh
start accounting.
There may be additional risks that the Company does not
presently know or currently believes are immaterial that could also
cause actual results to differ from those contained in the
forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company's
assumptions prove incorrect, the Company's actual financial
condition, results of operations, future performance and business
may vary in material respects from the performance projected in
these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement in
this press release is based only on information available to the
Company at the time such statement was made and speaks only as of
the date on which it was made. The statements included in this
press release are not guarantees of performance or results. Given
these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual
future results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update,
amend or clarify any forward-looking statement for any reason. No
representation or warranty is given as to the achievability or
reasonableness of any projections, estimates or forward-looking
statements. This press release is not intended to provide, and
should not be relied upon for, accounting, legal or tax advice or
any investment recommendation.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240719844203/en/
Investors: Email: IR@curo.com Media: Jude Gorman / Dan Moore,
Collected Strategies Email: CURO-CS@collectedstrategies.com