A Swiss investment bank acquired warrants convertible to a nearly 6% stake in JJB Sports last week as the insolvent British sporting goods retailer prepared to reorganize under protection from its creditors.
JJB Sports notified investors Feb. 25 that a group led by Adriano Agosti, chairman and managing director for GoldenPeaks Capital Partners AG, acquired warrants convertible to 7.46 million shares, or 5.76% of the retailer.
The retailer also said it had delivered a final draft of its revised business plan to Bank of Scotland detailing how it plans to restructure under a “corporate voluntary arrangement,” or CVA, which is the United Kingdom’s version of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
JJB said it will announce further details of the revised business plan in due course following completion of the independent review of the plan and its funding requirements by advisers.
Full details of the CVA proposals, including details of creditor and shareholder meetings, will be set out in the CVA proposal document that the company intends to dispatch to unsecured creditors and shareholders no later than Friday, March 4, 2011.
The company has maintained its open and constructive dialogue with key creditors, according to a Feb. 25 press release. To date, JJB has actively engaged with landlords accounting for 47% of the company's annual rental payments regarding the future shape of the Group's property portfolio.
“We are delighted to have achieved two further milestones this week – successful completion of the first capital raising and delivery of our revised business plan to Bank of Scotland,” said JJB Chairman Mike McTighe. “With publication of our CVA document scheduled for next week, the Board and management team continue to work extremely hard to rebuild JJB. With the continued support of all the company's stakeholders, we remain confident that we can deliver a successful turnaround.”
