J. Retention of Investment Bankers and Pursuit of Exit Financing
Accordingly, in December 2012 the Debtor began interviewing investment bankers to help it find the needed exit financing. Officers of the Debtor requested proposals from approximately 10 investment banking firms, ultimately selecting and receiving Bankruptcy Court approval by Order dated February 15, 2013 to retain KPMG Corporate Finance, LLC (“KPMG”) and Roth Capital Partners, LLC (“Roth”) with a mandate to secure the needed exit financing for the Debtor.
Over the next four months, KPMG and Roth conducted an extensive marketing process canvassing a wide range of financial and strategic investors to provide exit financing for the Debtor. In this marketing process, KPMG and Roth reached out to over one hundred entities to find a suitor interested in financing the Debtor’s operations on a prospective basis. During that process, the Debtor contacted 32 financial and 74 strategic investors, sent management presentations to 13 entities, and conducted diligence reviews with five strategic investors. Although none of these strategic investors made a proposal for exit financing, two of them proposed an acquisition of the Debtor’s business. These acquisition proposals ranged from $25 million to an amount less than the amount required to pay in full the Berg & Berg Notes, the DIP Facility and the Administrative Expenses of the Chapter 11 Case.
