HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — A federal bankruptcy judge has officially approved the sale of substantially all of American Tire Distributors' assets to a group of lenders.
Judge Craig T. Goldblatt, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, signed off on the deal Feb. 11, a day after a hearing in which he told the parties he was satisfied with the transaction.
ATD plans to complete the sale by Feb. 28.
Michael Feder, ATD's interim CEO and partner and managing director (retired, on recall) at AP Services, LLC, an affiliate of AlixPartners, LLP, issued a statement on the key development.
"We are pleased to have received court approval of our sale transaction with the purchaser, which marks one of the final steps in our sale process," Feder said. "Having conducted a competitive sale process over the last several months, we believe that this agreement represents the best path forward for the business and all of our stakeholders. The purchaser is poised to move forward as a stronger partner to manufacturers and customers.
"We are grateful to our manufacturer partners and customers for their support throughout this process. We remain focused on continuing to provide them with the outstanding levels of service they expect from us as we work to complete this process. We thank all of our associates for their continued focus and dedication to ATD."
ATD, the largest independent wholesale tire distributor in the U.S. with 2023 sales of $5.7 billion, filed for bankruptcy in October.
Last month, ATD canceled a scheduled court-ordered auction and chose to proceed with the "stalking horse" asset purchase it arranged in November with a group of lenders called the Ad Hoc Group.
Those lenders have been previously identified as Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, L.L.C.; KKR, Monarch Alternative Capital L.P.; Sculptor Capital Management Inc.; and Silver Point Capital, L.P.
The stalking horse bid set a minimum price for ATD's assets. Prior to the auction, ATD reached out to dozens of potential bidders and provided access to its financial information, but the stalking horse bid was "the highest and best—and only qualified bid," according to ATD's court filings.
