Thread by @pirateportfo

9 Days to Bankruptcy: Jake Freeman announces ownership of 2024 notes and 6.21% equity stake in Bed Bath & Beyond on July 21st, proposing a bond issuance to raise cash while opposing a sale of the company or a significant amount its assets. #BBBY

"Freeman Capital advocates for a debt realignment that does not change or affect the control. BBBY's effective realignment is a top priority for Freeman Capital and is made in the context of a disinterested shareholder-"

"Freeman Capital does not advocate for a sale of BBBY to another company, Freeman Capital does not advocate for the sale of a significant amount of the issuer's assets, Freeman Capital does not advocate for the restructuring of the issuer..."

Jake Freeman: Please don't sell Bed Bath to @Carl_C_Icahn or buybuy Baby to @ryancohen
Sue Gove:

(nice to have you back Wiggins, good luck tonight)

The bond issuance Freeman proposed would have raised $1 billion in cash for the Bed Bath, coming with it favorable covenants for Freeman giving his group first lien ownership of buybuy Baby at a $350 million valuation, among other things.

An important detail to add,

Note: "Freeman Capital and its affiliates are owners of the 2024 Notes."

Bed Bath chose a different financing strategy, however. On Aug 31st,

"The Company announced it has secured financing commitments for more than $500 million of new financing, including its newly expanded $1.14 billion 'ABL facility' and a new $375 million 'FILO facility'."

And Bed Bath instead chose to offer a bond exchange of "Old Notes" for "New Second Lien" and "New Third Lien" notes in October, a move to reduce long term debt contradicting Freeman's proposal to expand debt with new a bond issuance.

Reminder: "Bed Bath & Beyond announced that it has entered into privately negotiated exchange agreements with ~~several existing institutional holders~~ of its Senior Unsecured Notes due 2024..." on Nov 14th, converting $123m of debt into 11.7m shares (10% ownership at the time).

It appears Bed Bath raised new financing from JPM and performed an exchange offer at the discretion of these institutional bondholders.

This might imply these bondholders have been involved since at least July, directly competing w Freeman over the direction of the company.

And Jake Freeman lost.

This USC student even went to Reddit to drum up support for his parents funds proposals and "buy-buy-time". The account has been inactive for six months now, probably thought I'd forget. Used a Gmail account to run his freshly created business, out of a shop in Wyoming no less.

Nope.

Friday's Discussion: 12 Days to Bankruptcy w WestPoint Home