Current Price –$0.92;
Expected distributions – $1.08 – $1.25;
Upside – 15% to 35%;
Distributions are expected to be completed by Q4 2016 or beginning of Q1 2017 (within 6 months). Funds will be distributed only for record holders as of 30th of August.
Caution: The below listed idea involves company in bankruptcy and therefore is more complicated and risky than the usual ideas posted on this site. Please due your own due diligence before investing.
Background:
BINDQ is a bankruptcy liquidation story with all the assets having been sold (to Pfizer in July 2016) and majority of employees terminated/transferred. The company has no current operations and currently exists only to distribute remaining assets among creditors and equity holders.
Estimation of liquidation proceeds for equity holders:
The numbers in the below are based on the Plan of Liquidation (August 15th, 2016), and might not be final. However margin of safety seems to be large enough for shares to be attractive at current prices. Refer to pages 32-34 of the liquidation plan for further details.
Cash (August 15th) – $28m
Receivables and Security Deposit (August 15th) – $5.2m
Total assets to be distributed – $33.2m.
less claims
General Unsecured Claims (August 1st) – $5.2m
Priority Tax Claims (August 1st) – $0.207m
Further expected expenses (after August 1st) – $2m
Cowen success fee – $1.5m (based on Docket #378)
Total claims and expenses before equity distributions – $8.9m
Remaining equity distributions: $24.3m
Shares outstanding 20.9m
Expected equity distribution per share $1.16 (vs current price of $0.92 or 26% upside).
Additional upside comes from $1.975m holdback held in escrow till Dec 1st 2016 pursuant to the asset sale agreement to Pfizer. BINDQ’s receipt of some portion, or the entire amount, of the holdback depends on the claims, if any, asserted by Pfizer against the holdback prior to December 1.
Remaining equity distributions including holdback: $26.3m
Shares outstanding 20.89m
Expected equity distribution per share $1.26 (vs current price of $0.92 or 35% upside).
Wall Street Journal had a slightly lower estimate of total equity distributions $22.5m – equivalent to $1.08 per share – this estimate was based on figures before the recent August Liquidation Plan, which overall showed lower cash burn then initially projected.
Risks
There might appear some other claims which are not yet included within the ‘General unsecured claims’ section – Creditors have till 30th of August to file any further claims and till 14th of September to dispute the current liquidation plan. However, I do not foresee any further material increases in claims. Some details in the 10Q give confidence about this. E.g. in the latest 10Q, it is noted that so far the company received only $7.5m in scheduled and asserted claims, out of which $5.1m have already been paid or cured by the 12th of August (I assume the remaining balance is covered in the $5.4m of ‘General Unsecured Claims’). Claimants had almost 4 months since the bankruptcy in May 2016 to file their claims, so my guess is that anyone who wanted to file, has already done so. Any unexpected new claims should be immaterial.
Overall claims need to increase by more than $5m (or double the currently outstanding general claims) for the equity investors to start loosing money at the current share prices.
Equivalently, equity investors will start loosing money at the current share prices, only if zero of the indicated receivables (part of which is security deposit) are received.
Seems like a rather safe bet, but as I have limited experience in bankruptcies, my thoughts should be taken with the grain of salt.
Caution: This idea involves company in bankruptcy and therefore is more complicated and risky than the usual ideas posted on the site. Due your own due diligence before investing and do not consider anything written on this site as an investment advice.
Update – share price of BINDQ dropped after the record date (30th of August) has passed. Those buying the shares today will not be entitled to any distributions – in other words shares are worthless for today’s buyers. A case could be made for short selling these.
Record holders as of 30th of August can sell the shares today/yesterday and pocket both the upcoming distributions + the current share price.
As per recent filling:
“Under the Plan of Liquidation, only stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 30, 2016 (the “Distribution Record Date”) are entitled to payment as part of the initial cash distribution or any subsequent cash distribution(s) that may occur pursuant to the Plan of Liquidation. Any person who purportedly purchases or purportedly is transferred the Company’s common stock subsequent to the Distribution Record Date will not be entitled to payment as part of the initial cash distribution or any subsequent cash distribution(s) if the Plan of Liquidation is confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court.”
Today John Coleman has filed an objection to the proposed liquidation plan
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NDU2NDkx&id2=0
He argues that the record date of 30th of August is inappropriate as the stock was allowed to continue trading. Instead distributions should be made to current holders of the stock.
Coleman’s objection got overruled:
“On September 21, 2016, the Court held a hearing to consider confirmation of the
Plan, including entry of the Proposed Confirmation Order. On September 23, 2016, the Court
held a telephonic hearing and overruled the objection of Mr. Coleman and indicated that it would
enter the Proposed Confirmation Order. ”
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NDYxMDAy&id2=0
Trading in BINDQ shares has finally been suspended – normally this should have been done on the 31st of August. So anyone who entered short position in Sep/Oct will get 100% return in a few days (IB already shows 0 value for BINDQ)
And for all those who had owned the stock as of 30th of August, now it is time to wait for distributions of $1+. These will likely be done by Q4 2016 or Q1 2017.
Initial equity distribution of $8m is on its way – to be distributed on the 15th of Dec.
http://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/DownLoad-DownloadPDF?id1=NDk5ODQ4&id2=0&id3=0
How many shares outstanding? If they are distributing 8 million, what is it per share?
Brian, 20.9m shares outstanding so it works out at c. $0.38 per share. This is just initial distribution. More to come.
If there are any non-US investors here, did you get charged withholding tax on this distribution, or not?
Hi Ben, this distribution for some reason (really don’t know why) was treated as regular dividend and therefore will face the same withholdings taxes as any other US dividend.
Has anyone had the distribution hit their account yet? Thanks
Distributions hit the IB accounts yesterday (12/20). For other brokers dates might be different.
It seems clear that shareholders of record on August 30th will be entitled to the distributions. To your knowledge, has anyone — the company, NASDAQ or the bankruptcy court — ruled whether normal three-day settlement rules will apply (i.e., only shareholders with a purchase trade date of August 25th or earlier will be shareholders of record as of August 30th) or will a shorter settlement period apply, as has sometimes been the case in situations where a company makes distributions that are large relative to its pre-distribution value?
I am not able to advice you on this as I am not an expert on settlement date specifics. There has clearly been confusion about settlement period in the market as BINDQ traded at $1+ right up to August 30th. So as you suggest investors expected shorter settlement period due to large distribution. As it turned out the ex-dividend date is 26th of August with a standard T+3 settlement period. I haven’t seen anything specific with regards to settlement dates in any of the fillings.
I also did not expect this distribution to be classed as dividends.
U.S. investor here,
Does anyone know if this first dividend distribution gets taxed in 2016?
If I am reading this right, it is a return of capital and lowers the cost basis of the stock, but by broker lists it as a regular dividend.
IB also lists this as dividend, which is quite surprising as I was almost sure it would be return of capital. Hopefully the second larger distribution will be treated differently for tax purposes.
The first distribution WAS NOT A DIVIDEND. IB is wrong.
See the following twitter discussion with the bankruptcy trustee: https://twitter.com/b_chinnian5/status/844754168564912128
See the following commentary on stackexchange:
http://bit.ly/2nNoIUc
dt,
I use IB too, and saw that on the statement.
The reason I am asking is because they have made mistakes in the past about these kind of things. In each of the past few years they send me my tax forms in February and then send me a corrected tax form a month or two later.
That dividend took me over the $3,400 unearned income limit for my Earned Income Tax Credit. I sold my IMSCQ today at a loss because of this.
As of Dec 2016, then company had $18m of cash remaining:
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTQxMTUx&id2=0
Some further expenses might be deducted from this, but majority should be distributed to shareholders shortly as the bankruptcy proceedings are entering final liquidation stages. $18m works out to >$0.8 per share and that is on top of earlier distribution of $0.38 per share.
Where’s my distribution? I had 100 shares of BIND that I bought in Feb 2016 and got nothing.
Check your statements for Dec cash inflow. The first distributions happened in mid Dec 2016.
Dispute is going on with regards to taxation of BINDQ/DNIB distribution. Apparently these distributions should not have been taxed as dividends.
http://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/DownLoad-DownloadPDF?id1=NTcxMTIy&id2=0&id3=0
Just received Corporate Action doc from Bindq. Anybody has opinion? Actions to take?
What corp action doc are you referring to?
See http://bit.ly/2nNoIUc
Or more specifically, https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTQ2NzQy&id2=0
If you are referring to equity distribution form with regards to the second distribution, then this has been challenged and I doubt will be required.
“ORDER PROHIBITING TRUSTEE FROM CONDITIONING DISTRIBUTIONS TO SHAREHOLDERS ON SUBMISSION OF EQUITY DISTRIBUTION FORM”
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTY3NDcw&id2=0
My understanding is that the hearing date has been set for 17th of May.
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTczMzA0&id2=0
Trustees explanation of why the form is required can be found here:
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTgxMzMy&id2=0
So my understanding is that until this is resolved on the May 17th there is no need to fill any kind of forms.
It turns out these forms are still required in order to receive further distributions.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1385228/000119312517134182/d346016dex991.htm
We still waiting here?
Yes, distributions are still pending. Previously announced tax form submission deadline was August 7th – but the requirement to submit these tax forms continues to be challenged and now the court date is set for 16th of August, which is after the submission deadline.
Final check just arrived in the mail.
It’s not final yet – there will be one more to come.
What is left after 10/10/17 payment?
Could you please make a recap of this trade at some point? Thanks
Will be happy to do that after final distributions will be made.
I bought this stock in my IRA account. Anybody know how to deposit this check back to my IRA account?
Thanks
you should check with your broker (or Prime Clerk) regarding this, and potentially ask Prime Clerk to write out the check to a difference recipient (maybe to your broker).
I held my BINDQ in two different IRA accounts (roth and traditional). I have received one check in my name. Checks should have gone to IRA custodian not me. I will be making some calls this week, but will wait to see if I get two checks or if BINDQ co-mingled funds across my accounts.
Received check dated 10/10/17 for 0.510618 per share.
This note from IB is bizarre:
Dear BINDQ shareholder,
You are receiving this notice as you were entitled to receive a future distribution for shares of BINDQ as you submitted a valid W-8 or W-9.
Here is the information we have at this time as this is still under investigation.
We are reviewing this with the trustee and bankruptcy agent are waiting for a response and resolution from them.
As such, if you have received a distribution check, please do not deposit or cash it yet as the trustee is still reviewing all of the details with the tax implications.
We hope to have an answer soon and will keep you informed of the situation as soon as we receive confirmation from the trustee.
Regards,
Interactive Brokers Client Services
https://alphavulture.com/2017/10/20/the-curious-case-of-the-bindq-liquidation-trust/
Highlights:
After paying an initial liquidation distribution last year the trustee sent a letter to shareholders that they would be required to fill out an equity distribution form and a form W8/W9 in 180 days in order to be eligible for future distributions. This piece of paperwork proved a bit tricky to complete. You needed to provide the signed tax form to your broker, and your broker needed to sign-off on the number of shares you owned on the record date
As a result shareholders owning 75.05% of the company provided tax forms and equity certification forms. This means that a relative large part of the shareholder base isn’t getting any money from future distributions
As an added twist, because the payment wasn’t made to all shareholders it couldn’t be processed by the Depository Trust Company (DTC) and instead shareholders got a paper check
Anything new since November 6, 2017 hearing?
I have not seen anything material yet. The latest plan only notes previous distribution:
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=ODIwMDA3&id2=0
Dec report shows there still is c. $7.3m in the account which should eventually be distributed to shareholders (after bankruptcy expenses are deducted).
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=ODEyMDU2&id2=0
Court has approved $1m additional budget for liquidation proceedings, so I assume that eventual distribution per share will be c. $0.40-$0.45.
https://cases.primeclerk.com/BIND/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NzcyMzc2&id2=0
Completing the 2017 1099, which is now out, was holding up the next distribution. However, now we are waiting for liquidation of Russian subsidiary, which is somehow dependent on the liquidation of a bankrupt, corrupt Russian bank. Previous estimate of Russian resolution was before mid-year. If it looks like it will take longer, current cash of c.$7.5mm may be distributed earlier and then a final payment following Russian resolution. If Russia will be resolved fairly soon, then may have to wait for that to close and then receive one final payment on everything.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Trustee of the DNIB Liquidation Trust hereby
provides notice that he intends to make an additional distribution to shareholders who timely
provided requested tax information to the Trust in the aggregate amount of approximately
$4,000,000 on or about May 9, 2018. The per share distribution to shareholders who timely
provided the requested tax information to the Trust for the third distribution is approximately $0.25
Russian Subsidiary BindRUS is in liquidation, revocable proceeds unknown at this time. Expecting another $0.20-0.25 per share after May 2018 distribution, plus whatever may come out of Russia liquidation.
Received check dated 4/30/18 for amount equal to $0.2518918 per share.