The purchase by Florida Sunshine Investments includes all 47 sites operated in bankruptcy by Blountville, Tenn.-based Appco, as well as rights to the company's [image-nocss] private brand name, Appco.
Appco's bankruptcy attorney, Mark Dessauer, filed a motion on August 25 asking that the sale to Florida Sunshine Investments be approved. The motion called the offer of $6.25 million plus cost of inventory "the highest and best bid for the assets of [Appco]."
As reported yesterday in a CSP Daily News Flash, the stores, all of which are leasehold properties, are located in eastern Tennessee, southeastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia. They were offered through NRC's "buy one, some or all" sealed-bid sale process, under the supervision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
"I'm pleased that Florida Sunshine will retain all of Appco's stores, a portion of its dealer business, and the vast majority of employees," said P.A. (Andy) Weber III, senior vice president of NRC, who has been serving as Chief Restructuring Officer for Appco. "It is the end of a long road in Appco's history and the beginning of a new chapter in Appco's bright future. I appreciate the help of the DIP Lender, the creditors committee, and most importantly the Appco employees who continued to serve their customers during this process."
Florida Sunshine Investments made a late offer on the company after another bidder, Empire Petroleum Holdings, Rockville, Md., had lowered its initial $9.1 million bid to $5.5 million saying Appco's financial information discovered in due diligence was unacceptable. Empire agreed to a stipulation then that Appco could seek other offers and accept any that exceeded the $5.5 million bid by 5% or more. The Florida Sunshine Investments bid was about 14% higher.
Chicago-based NRC Realty & Capital Advisors provides real estate and financial advisory services and specializes in the accelerated sale of commercial and residential real estate. It offers portfolio evaluation and analysis; refinancing, recapitalization and sale-leaseback financing options; and merger and acquisition advisory services. NRC has sold more than 2,100 convenience stores and gas stations for an amount in excess of $1.5 billion for clients. Clients include companies in a variety of industries, including petroleum (BP, Shell and Sunoco), convenience stores (White Hen Pantry and Circle K), financial institutions (GE Capital, Fifth Third and Bank of America) and retail (Kmart).
Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage of Appco.
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