NEW YORK, Nov. 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epiq has been named a winner of the M&A Advisor Consumer Discretionary Deal of The Year Award (over $100MM) and was recognized for setting an extremely high standard of dealmaking. The award honors Epiq Corporate Restructuring Group and its role in the $1.59 billion restructuring of Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC.
Epiq was selected as claims, noticing, and solicitation agent to help the company execute its prearranged chapter 11 bankruptcy. Serta filed chapter 11 in January to implement a comprehensive financial restructuring that would result in a reduction of the company’s funded debt by approximately $1.59 billion. Accomplished in June, Serta is now positioned to maintain its 19 percent market share in the bedding industry. Because the company was able to operate as normal during the case, it was able to keep retail and manufacturing facilities open, limit any job loss, and today operates with a substantially healthier balance sheet.
“Serta is considered a mega bankruptcy and therefore involves more complexity to administer,” said Brad Tuttle, Epiq’s General Manager and Senior Managing Director. “Only experienced claims administrators, like Epiq, can handle these large cases and we are proud that we were selected as their strategic partner.”
Epiq was asked to review and create an executory contract repository for more than 3,000 contracts. Epiq’s experienced case team executed flawlessly and was able to deliver this product in advance of Schedules and Statement of Financial Affairs being filed at the outset of the case. Epiq also assisted Serta with the compilation of the creditor matrix that included more than 40,000 parties consisting mainly of vendors, employees, and customers while also launching a custom case website. Epiq expertly handled the Bar Date and Proof of Claim notices as well as the Confirmation and Effective Date notices on this high volume of parties.
Epiq set-up a multilingual call center that could field calls from creditors, employees, and vendors. Epiq deployed IVR systems that handled many of the incoming calls and provided significant cost saving to the client, while more complex calls were routed to agents. Epiq has its own in-house call center so was able to scale up immediately to meet the company's demands. Epiq also assisted with the balloting and solicitation process.
The pace of bankruptcies has increased in recent years. According to Epiq Bankruptcy, October commercial chapter 11 filings increased 106 percent over 2022, including Serta Simmons Bedding. Last month, October marked 15 consecutive months that total, individual, and commercial bankruptcy filings have registered monthly year-over-year increases. That type of activity may continue for the rest of the year, according to Tuttle.
“Many in the industry predict that as access to money tightens, we will continue to see an uptick in bankruptcy filings; however, the question is always when and exactly how big the increase will be,” Tuttle said. “Bankruptcies have steadily increased following the sunset of government funding, interest rate increases, inflation growth, and tightening lending standards. These trends are something Epiq studies closely in order to be prepared to support clients like Serta Simmons Bedding.”
Epiq Corporate Restructuring Group has the longest history in corporate restructuring management and works with companies in every industry and size to help navigate chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Epiq’s corporate restructuring professionals are the industry’s most experienced having worked on more than 1,200 cases. The team applies the latest in administrative restructuring technology to handle the burden of the pre- and post-filing, allowing management teams to focus on their core business.
The M&A Advisor was founded in 1998 to offer insights and intelligence on M&A activities and has since been established as the premier global network of M&A, turnaround, and finance professionals.
About Epiq
Epiq, a global technology-enabled services leader to the legal services industry and corporations, takes on large-scale, increasingly complex tasks for corporate counsel, law firms, and business professionals with efficiency, clarity, and confidence. Clients rely on Epiq to streamline the administration of business operations, class action and mass tort, court reporting, eDiscovery, regulatory, compliance, restructuring, and bankruptcy matters. Epiq subject-matter experts and technologies create efficiency through expertise and deliver confidence to high-performing clients around the world. Learn more at https://www.epiqglobal.com.
Press Contact
Carrie Trent
Epiq, Director of Communications and Public Relations
Carrie.Trent@epiqglobal.com
