Rubie’s Costume gets OK to sell company assets to joint venture

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Sept. 25 – Rubie’s Costume Co., Inc. obtained court approval of the sale of substantially all of its assets to Rubie’s II, LLC, a joint venture comprised of a multi-billion-dollar investment fund and a strategic operator, according to an order filed Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The joint venture served as stalking horse bidder. Because no qualified bids were received for the assets, no auction was held.

The buyer agreed to pay the full amount of debt under Rubie’s debtor-in-possession loan, which is anticipated to be about $45 million plus interest and fees, and to the debtors’ pre-petition lenders about $35,725,000 plus interest and fees. The buyer will also pay or assume the $5 million SWAP liability as well as replace $11.7 million of undrawn letters of credit, assume all post-petition non-professional obligations of the debtors’ estates, and pay $2 million in cash to allow the company to complete a plan of liquidation.

Rubie’s will keep $7 million of cash on hand to allow it to complete the plan.

A $9 million pool of cash will be used to fund a liquidating plan and make distributions to creditors.

The new company formed by the joint venture will receive 70% of the newly issued shares in Rubie’s, and Rubie’s Beige shareholders will receive the other 30%.

Melville, N.Y.-based Rubie’s designs, manufactures and distributes Halloween costumes and accessories. The company filed bankruptcy on April 30 under Chapter 11 case number 20-71970.

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