PNP – Page 2 – Divestor

The continuing saga of Pinetree Capital

Pinetree Capital (TSX: PNP) announced it will be redeeming another $10 million in its debentures on June 5, 2015. This is on top of the $10 million that was already redeemed on April 30, 2015.

For those of you following the Pinetree Capital saga (history of posts here), I continue to hold Pinetree debentures (TSX: PNP.DB) as I believe it is more probable than not they will be made whole at maturity.

On December 31, 2014 Pinetree Capital had approximately $107 million of investment assets on its balance sheet (at fair value, $75 million level 1, $8 million level 2 and $23 million level 3) and $54.8 million in debentures that are now senior and secured by all assets of the company. They have no other debt. When the debtholders got three of their directors on the board when Pinetree defaulted on their debt covenants in late January, presumably on February they start on their liquidation spree. On March 29, 2015 they had $14.3 million cash in the bank which they used to redeem the first $10 million of debt. After June 5, 2015, they will have $34.8 million in debentures outstanding.

Debentureholders will also receive their semi-annual interest payment (10% annual coupon) on May 31, 2015.

As part of their forbearance agreement (to stave off their debt being declared fully payable with likely CCAA implications), Pinetree Capital was required to redeem a minimum of $20 million face value in debentures by July 31, 2015. They had the option of redeeming the debentures with 1/3rd equity, which they have not done so to date. They are also required to maintain a debt-to-assets ratio of 50% until October 31, 2015 and then 33% afterwards.

When doing a quick and dirty pro-forma with no change in assumed asset value other than the payment of interest and principal on debentures, after the June 5 redemption they will have a debt-to-assets ratio of 40.5%. If Pinetree were to redeem another $11 million in principal by the end of August, this would bring the ratio to 33%. Presumably they would want a little bit of a margin of error to work with, so it is likely before October 31, 2015 that they will redeem around $15-20 million in further principal which would bring them safely below the 33% mark.

Not surprisingly, the market has picked up on this and has bidded up the debentures to 88 cents on the dollar. What has previously been a 75 cent dollar is now considerably more expensive and will likely converge to par throughout 2015 with diminishing market liquidity as the debenture supply dries up.

Disclosure: Still long on PNP.DB, but as the redemptions occur, my portfolio weighting decreases.

Pinetree Capital – Redeeming debentures

Pinetree Capital (TSX: PNP) today has announced it is redeeming $10 million of its debentures, at par value plus accrued interest, effective April 30, 2015.

As readers are aware by my previous rantings about Pinetree, their debt has been a remarkably good deal, especially around the 70 cent range, but they are still a reasonable risk/reward at 80 cents. The extra security that was arm-wrestled from management once they blew the covenants is icing on the cake.

Debenture holders will be cashed out pro-rata, which works out to an 18% redemption of debt. I’ll be hard-pressed to find a better alternative for the cash, but I’ll be happy to have it sitting in the bank account until such a time.

The market value of the debentures was bid/ask 80/83 cents and considering the cash-out is at par, this will likely result in an increase in the quoted price for the remaining debentures.

Notable to this announcement is that this is going to be funded by cash on hand, which implies that the company has been doing some liquidation of its non-disclosed holdings (these would be less than 10% ownership stakes in various firms). There has only been a minor trace of activity on SEDI on their 10%+ ownership stakes (the two largest that are publicly known is POET Technologies (TSXV: PTK) and Sphere 3D (Nasdaq: ANY)).

Also notable is that this is the first $10 million of the $20 million that is required to be redeemed by July 31, 2015. Up to half of the remaining amount can be done through open market transactions and also the company has the option of redeeming 1/3rd of its debentures in the form of equity, which has not been the case to date.

Finally, Pinetree has not released its 2014 year-end audited financial statements, but one can assume that they will be able to with this redemption notice. The annual statements are due on March 31, 2015 otherwise very bad things happen to reporting issuers that do not report.

Pinetree must have a debt-to-assets ratio of 50% up until October 31, 2015 and then after that it must be below 33% otherwise it will be in default of its debt covenants (once again). We should get a better view of what may occur once they file their 1st quarter report. Achieving 33% is going to be made much easier once they complete $20 million in redemptions and the question is whether debenture holders are going to receive equity or not (which would likely give debtholders control of the firm).

I’m expecting there will be a reasonably decent chance that investors in the senior secured convertible debentures will be made whole and also be able to collect a 10% coupon between now and the May 31, 2016 maturity date.

Pinetree Capital Debentures – Buying a dollar for 80 cents

The ongoing saga of Pinetree Capital (TSX: PNP) continues.

After coming to an agreement (after what functionally amounted to a financial game of chicken when management “blinked”) with over 2/3rds of the debenture holders in a very private setting, management has been ousted, and a new agreement has been put in place that grants debt holders security over the assets of the entire company.

There is also a provision to repurchase debentures as follows:

On or prior to July 31, 2015, the Company shall reduce the aggregate principal amount of the outstanding Debentures by at least $20,000,000 by redeeming outstanding Debentures and, at the Company’s discretion, repurchasing outstanding Debentures up to a maximum principal amount of $5,000,000 pursuant to a normal course issuer bid.

There will likely be some market action in the upcoming months as the company attempts to repurchase its debt. Of course by doing so the price will get closer to par value. There is also a redemption to equity feature which has been opened by the debtholders, as the following language was inserted into the indenture agreement:

The Initial Debentures will be redeemable prior to the Maturity Date in accordance with the terms of Article 4, at the option of the Company, in whole or in part from time to time, on notice as provided for in Section 4.3 for the Redemption Price. The Redemption Notice for the Initial Debentures shall be substantially in the form of Schedule B. In connection with the redemption of the Initial Debentures, the Company may, at its option, and subject to the provisions of Section 4.6 and subject to regulatory approval, elect to satisfy its obligation to pay up to one-third of the aggregate principal amount of the Initial Debentures to be redeemed by issuing and delivering to the holders of such Initial Debentures, such number of Freely Tradeable Common Shares as is obtained by dividing such amount by 95% of the Current Market Price in effect on the Redemption Date. If the Company

The company will have the choice of either paying out the debtholders in cash, or by issuing equity, or a combination of both up to a one-third allocation of equity, depending on what the market price is.

Management will be compelled to dispose of securities from the newly constructed investment committee, which consists of two directors that were nominated by the debenture consortium:

The Company shall adhere to the decisions of the Investment Oversight Committee, except in cases where the Company’s board of directors has overruled a decision of the Investment Oversight Committee. For greater certainty, the Investment Oversight Committee has the power to override a decision of the Company’s management to purchase or dispose of any securities and to make a binding decision to dispose of any security now held or that may be held by the Company in the future, provided that such decisions are subject to the approval of the board of directors of the Company.

In addition to having a net asset value above the market value, in addition to an anticipation of an equity conversion, the equity of Pinetree has risen. It will likely rise to a point that reflects a modest discount to NAV, and the company is required to disclose its audited financial statements by the end of March.

Pinetree’s two largest holdings, Sphere3D (Nasdaq: ANY), and POET Technologies (TSXV: PTK), have done quite well and will likely provide cash for paying off debtholders.

Finally, lest the company gets its balance sheet out of position, it is required to have a debt-to-assets ratio of 50% up until October 31, 2015 and then afterwards it will go down to 33% as per the original covenant. This will assure the debtholders will be in the driving seat until they are paid off in full. If the company defaults on these provisions, the debtholders will set terms of forbearance and will likely be in a position to be paid off no matter what, as at this point there will only be $35 million outstanding and being first in line to collect.

The conclusion is obvious: barring a collapse in Pinetree’s (admitting they are less than AAA quality) holdings, the original thesis as presented holds true. Debtholders will very likely get the chance to get out at par and collect a very happy 10% coupon in the meantime. The fact that debtholders now have a general pledge of asset security over the entire company is icing on the cake – it does not give Pinetree any maneuvering room until they are paid off first (i.e. by pillaging debtholders by putting somebody ahead of line with them – see Armtech Infrastructure for the end of that sad saga).

I will discount the fraud scenario as it is perfectly obvious by the February 19, 2015 SEDAR disclosures that debentureholders got a very good look at the corporation as they made their negotiations. I would expect the audited financial statements to be published in mid-month. The only accounting decision of any substance would likely involve a valuation allowance offsetting their currently existing tax asset of $13 million (this would have an impact on their NAV, but this can get unlocked in some other transaction of substance).

The maturity date for the debentures are May 31, 2016, but effectively debtholders will know the game is over by October 31, 2015 and the market will treat the debt at that time as more or less being a done deal (i.e. at least 95 cents on the dollar, if not more for the 10% interest accrual).

With the conservative assumption that debtholders will get 95 cents on the dollar, it looks like from existing market prices (roughly 80 cents), an investor will achieve a 20% capital gain and another 10% interest coupon between now and whenever they get cashed out. I’ll call that a 30% reward for little risk at this stage of the game.

It is really a sad story for me as I cannot think of any other place where capital could be allocated for such a good risk/reward situation. I am riding the coattails of some financial institutions that have their vested interests in total alignment with mine – i.e. taking the reins of the underlying company to ensure we are paid back. Backing up this claim is the following clause inserted into the indenture:

The Initial Debentures are direct secured obligations of the Company, and rank senior to all other indebtedness for borrowed money of the Company. In accordance with Section 2.12, the Initial Debentures rank pari passu with each other. Notwithstanding anything else to the contrary in this Indenture, no additional Initial Debentures and no additional series of Debentures shall be issued under this Indenture or under indentures supplemental to this Indenture.

I have little opinion on the equity other than that it should trade a shade below net asset value, plus some amount for the implied value of the future capital loss carryforwards for an inspiring acquirer of Pinetree. Unlike Aberdeen International (TSX: AAB), new management at least has the ability to show they pretend to care about shareholders instead of using the publicly traded vehicle as a personal enrichment device.

This might be my last post on Pinetree Capital as the story appears to have come to a close, but “never say never” in these very strange and weird capital markets we live with.

Disclosure – Long on a non-trivial position of Pinetree Capital debentures.

Last second agreement with Pinetree Capital

I thought Pinetree Capital was going into CCAA, but clearly there was enough arm-wrestling behind closed doors to come to the following agreement (which should hopefully be posted in SEDAR fairly quickly):

In connection with the execution of the Forbearance Agreement, each of Messrs. Roger Rai, Sheldon Inwentash and Marshall Auerback will resign from the board of directors of the company. As well, Mr. Inwentash will resign as Chairman and CEO of the company. Richard Patricio, the company’s Vice-President, Corporate and Legal Affairs will assume the responsibilities of Interim CEO.

Management is gone, plus three (of seven) directors, all of which can be considered to be heavy insiders in the company. Needless to say, considering past performance, this can only be a plus.

The CFO and corporate counsel is still on board, presumably to keep continuity in the overall operation.

I had speculated in my earlier post that the reason why Pinetree did not come to any agreement with debentureholders was because they demanded that management be removed, and it looks like management blinked. The reason for this is perhaps because they did not want to be associated with an entity going into creditor protection. This has to get disclosed in any subsequent documents (such as annual information forms) if management is associated with any publicly traded entities.

the Supporting Debentureholders will have the right to nominate up to three directors to the company’s board of directors; two of whom will constitute an investment oversight committee to be established by the company;

The current board (including the three directors that will be leaving) is of seven people; while this is minority representation, one can presume that they will bring in actual investment expertise to ensure that the interests of the debtholders are respected in future decisions. In particular, the hiring of a new CEO will be the most important decision the reconstituted board will make.

the company will grant security over its assets in favour of all holders of the Debentures;

This will ensure that debenture holders will receive proceeds of any sale of the company, including the value of the deferred tax assets. It will also restrict the company from borrowing more money unless if subsequent lenders understand they are subordinated.

the company will utilize at least $20 million to reduce the aggregate principal amount of the outstanding Debentures by July 31, 2015, and will be subject to a debt-to-assets ratio of 50% (in lieu of 33%) for the three-month period of July through September;

$20 million will be utilized and whatever discount there is to market value will result in a higher par value retired by the corporation. At the current quotation of 70 cents, this would retire about $28 million in par value, or about half the current issue.

the Indenture will be amended to remove restrictions on the company’s redemption rights, subject to the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange; and

I am not entirely sure what this alludes to, but we will see whenever the agreement is posted on SEDAR.

the trustee and the Debenture holders will refrain from exercising any rights or remedies that they may have against the company under the Indenture or otherwise, as a result of the current default and any subsequent default in respect of the Covenant occurring up to October 31, 2015.

This is functionally a 9 month grace period. The maturity of the debentures is May 2016.

You will have the debtholders working to ensure an efficient liquidation of assets coupled with the possibility that they might end up with a significant equity stake if there is a redemption to equity on the May 2016 maturity. The October 31, 2015 restriction is designed to ensure that debtholders have effective control of the company if Pinetree’s debt-to-asset ratio is not less than 33% by October 31, 2015.

Some remaining questions:

1. Will Pinetree be able to liquidate its holdings efficiently? Reported NAV was 46 cents in November 30, 2014.
2. Final year-end statements must be received and filed publicly by March 31, 2015. At a minimum, it will probably look like their $13 million in deferred tax assets will be vanishing and a valuation allowance put into place. The level 2 and level 3 assets will have to be carefully examined to see if they are worth anything (this was $55 million of the reported $161 million in assets at the Q3-2014 statement).

Finally, the asset remaining on the books that is not going to be seen on the statements will be the half-billion dollar capital loss tax shield. This will get sold, the question is for how much and to who. You would think that the debtholders, compromised mainly of financial firm people, will have a way of getting this into one of their own closed end funds for utilization – funds that generate capital gains to offset such losses.

Currently the equity is getting trashed (at 7 cents per share, down from 11 cents when it was halted), while the debentures are roughly level. My initial suspicion would be that with the removal of management, you would have an increase in valuation, but I guess I was wrong there too.

That’s about it for Pinetree Capital

History: Pinetree Capital previous postings (link here).

January 23, 2015 was the date that Pinetree Capital (TSX: PNP) had to cure a covenant breach of its debt-to-assets ratio (being 33% or less). Unfortunately for them, they failed to obtain a waiver or apparently cure the default.

Before the ordinary time of opening, IIROC put a trading halt with news pending. There hasn’t been any news published so it would lead one to believe that management has failed to cure the breach.

Section 8.1 of the indenture states:

ARTICLE 8
DEFAULT
8.1 Events of Default
…
(x) in each and every such event listed above, the Trustee may, in its discretion, and shall, upon receipt of a request in writing signed by the holders of not less than 25% in aggregate principal amount of the Debentures then outstanding, subject to the provisions of Section 8.3, by notice in writing to the Company declare the principal of and interest on all Debentures then outstanding and all other monies outstanding hereunder to be due and payable and the same shall thereupon forthwith become immediately due and payable to the Trustee.

One can presume that given the rather speedy notice that was given to the company of the default that the trustee is going to get notified of this breach fairly quickly and on the first business day, January 26, 2015, the principal and interest will become due immediately. Since there is an event of default occurring, the company cannot trigger the common share conversion feature.

My guess at this point is that the trading halt will continue until Pinetree officially declares itself unable to pay its debenture and goes into CCAA. Then TSX rules will suspend trading and eventually delist the company. The subsequent proceeding will involve the bankruptcy trustee being instructed by its creditors (the bulk of which are the debenture holders of which the major players will form a committee) to liquidate and put an end to the terminally ill patient.

My other observation is that Pinetree Capital management should have received the hint back in 2013 that they needed to reduce debt by purchasing debentures off the open market while they were given a 9-month grace period by its debtholders. They instead went recklessly purchasing other penny stock securities and ultimately got what they deserved.

My other guess is that behind the scenes the debtholders told management the only condition they will accept for a waiver is a complete overhaul of the board of directors and management. Clearly management did not agree, nor is it in management’s best interest to re-capitalize their company with fresh equity (i.e. cash) since this cash would most likely end up in debtholders’ hands.

I originally thought management had better self-preservation instincts, but apparently even this was too much for them to handle.

Skimming their last quarterly report (September 30, 2014), we have the following entry:

For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company generated net realized losses on disposal of investments of $334,412, as compared to $14,921 for the nine months ended September 30, 2013. The net realized losses in the current period was a result of the disposition of approximately 68% of the Company’s investment portfolio.

Realize these numbers are in the thousands, so just in the first nine months alone they managed to go through 1/3rd of a billion in realized losses (a lot of which I am sure have been on their books for ages). They also have another $118 million in unrealized losses their portfolio, which will inevitably get liquidated for less than fair value as stated on their financial statements.

My idea for Pinetree’s inevitable exit strategy was that they would sell their corporation off to some hedge fund actually capable of making money. The acquiring fund could use Pinetree’s accrued capital losses as a massive tax shield. There are quite complex rules concerning CCAA (if things get there) and utilization of operating and capital losses that I will not get into this post about, but suffice to say, my original idea for their exit strategy has not materialized.

Somebody give me management’s $1 million a year salary job and I’ll do better, I promise. Heck, I’ll do it for a 10th of that with a bit of an equity incentive.