Gold Standard Baking bid procedures draw objection from committee

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., July 7 – Gold Standard Baking, LLC’s official committee of unsecured creditors objected to the company’s bid procedures for its assets, according to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The committee said it understands that the debtor wants to sell its assets to stalking horse bidder 37 Baking Holdings, LLC, which recently acquired the company’s first-lien debt and is also the debtor-in-possession lender in “a very compressed timeframe,” the group said.

The committee said it made information and document requests from both the debtor and 37 Baking.

Among the information requested by the committee was information concerning the newly formed stalking horse bidder’s financial wherewithal and ability to close and fund its obligations under the agreement, including post-closing financial projections; information concerning the debtors’ prepetition marketing efforts; the timing of payment by the stalking horse bidder of certain claims and ordinary course trade payables; documents and filings to allow the committee to conduct a review of the validity, priority and extent of the stalking horse bidder’s purported liens in the debtors’ assets; and information concerning the purchase price and other consideration paid by the stalking horse bidder to acquire the debtors’ first-lien debt.

The committee said it is also concerned that the stalking horse bidder may be an insider.

“Given the desire of the debtors and the stalking horse bidder to conduct the § 363 sale process on such an accelerated pace, the committee assumed that, at a minimum, this critical information would be readily available and promptly furnished to the committee to allow to the committee to conduct its due diligence and make an informed decision on the relief requested in the bid procedures motion,” the committee said in its objection.

On July 2, the debtors’ counsel agreed to provide the information, but as of Wednesday afternoon only “limited and insufficient” information in response to the committee’s requests has been provided, the committee said.

The Chicago-based industrial baker filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 22 under case number 22-10559.

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