SIT­U­A­TION

• The Com­pa­ny is a mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional, spon­sor-backed busi­ness that has been cre­at­ing and mar­ket­ing pre­mi­um choco­late con­fec­tions for over 100 years
• After great suc­cess and rapid growth dur­ing 2010 – 2016, the Com­pa­ny embarked on an in-house man­u­fac­tur­ing ini­tia­tive, which required a cap­i­tal injec­tion in the form of a bridge loan from a pri­vate cred­it fund to com­plete the build out strategy
• Dur­ing 2019, the Com­pa­ny default­ed on its bridge loan, caus­ing a debt-to-equi­ty swap result­ing in the cred­it fund now con­trol­ling the business
• The Company’s per­for­mance was sub­se­quent­ly neg­a­tive­ly impact­ed by sup­ply chain dif­fi­cul­ties relat­ed to Covid-19, caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant decreas­es in rev­enue, EBIT­DA, work­ing cap­i­tal, and a ~90% sin­gle cus­tomer con­cen­tra­tion with a big-box retailer
• Chi­ron was engaged as the exclu­sive invest­ment banker by the Com­pa­ny to find a suit­able acquir­er to mon­e­tize the cred­it fund’s invest­ed cap­i­tal that had con­vert­ed to equity

OUT­COME

• The Com­pa­ny is a mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional, spon­sor-backed busi­ness that has been cre­at­ing and mar­ket­ing pre­mi­um choco­late con­fec­tions for over 100 years
• After great suc­cess and rapid growth dur­ing 2010 – 2016, the Com­pa­ny embarked on an in-house man­u­fac­tur­ing ini­tia­tive, which required a cap­i­tal injec­tion in the form of a bridge loan from a pri­vate cred­it fund to com­plete the build out strategy
• Dur­ing 2019, the Com­pa­ny default­ed on its bridge loan, caus­ing a debt-to-equi­ty swap result­ing in the cred­it fund now con­trol­ling the business
• The Company’s per­for­mance was sub­se­quent­ly neg­a­tive­ly impact­ed by sup­ply chain dif­fi­cul­ties relat­ed to Covid-19, caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant decreas­es in rev­enue, EBIT­DA, work­ing cap­i­tal, and a ~90% sin­gle cus­tomer con­cen­tra­tion with a big-box retailer
• Chi­ron was engaged as the exclu­sive invest­ment banker by the Com­pa­ny to find a suit­able acquir­er to mon­e­tize the cred­it fund’s invest­ed cap­i­tal that had con­vert­ed to equity