Very interesting in that SuperShuttle was sold to a PE firm specializing in distressed assets in September. This bankruptcy was likely already a given at that time.
You wonder what analysis went into that deal. Just the month before, Uber had announced a $5.2 billion loss for the quarter, which gives a sense of the competitive landscape SuperShuttle faced.
There are also arguments that PE has been doing a lot of poor deals lately and institutions allocating to them are going to be disappointed:
Came here to say this. I'm not sure their bankruptcy was a given at the time, but I do wonder how much money they took out of the deal in exchange for cheap debt that the company is now defaulting on.
Franchisees took on all the risk here - how does the parent go bankrupt unless it was a debt-based grab?
Yes, it was a $$ grab by the investment firm that took over in Sept. Transdev, their previous parent co, gave Blackstreet Capital Holdings somewhere around $20ml to take ownership of SuperShuttle. From what I understand Transdev had tax credits coming due from losses they took in previous years and this was an easier out. There were others who were interested and in the game who were going to take less and actually keep it running but they were not considered. Not sure why Transdev didn't take either of those offers. Also, Transdev filed a suit last month in Delaware over a $7ml dispute in working capital adjustments with Blackstreet. Side note, person heading up the takeover from Blackstreet was not nice at all, to be polite.
