Akanthos Capital Management, LLC v. Compucredit Holdings Corp.

770 F. Supp. 2d 1315, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28568, 2011 WL 987353
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 15, 2011
DocketCivil 1:10-cv-844-TCB
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 770 F. Supp. 2d 1315 (Akanthos Capital Management, LLC v. Compucredit Holdings Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Akanthos Capital Management, LLC v. Compucredit Holdings Corp., 770 F. Supp. 2d 1315, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28568, 2011 WL 987353 (N.D. Ga. 2011).

Opinion

ORDER

TIMOTHY C. BATTEN, SR., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on motions to dismiss brought by (1) Defendant CompuCredit Holdings Corporation (“CompuCredit”) [124], (2) Defendants David G. Hanna, Frank J. Hanna, III, Richard R. House, Jr., Richard W. Gilbert, K.K. Srinivasan, and J. Pal Whitehead, III[133], and (3) Defendants Thomas G. Rosencrants and Gregory J. Corona [134],

I. Background

Plaintiffs describe this litigation as a test case to determine “whether creditors of rapidly failing companies may pursue Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (“UFTA”) claims against insiders who plunder the corporation for self gain.” [139, p. I] 1

*1320 Plaintiffs allege that CompuCredit is a publicly traded subprime financial services provider that is primarily owned by CEO David Hanna and his brother Frank. 2 Plaintiffs are holders of the following CompuCredit notes: (1) 3.625% convertible senior notes due in 2025, issued pursuant to May 27, 2005 indenture; and (2) 5.875% convertible senior notes due in 2035, issued pursuant to a November 23, 2005 indenture. About $387 million in CompuCredit’s notes are outstanding, with about $230 million of that amount due to be repurchased in May 2012. Plaintiffs contend that because they collectively own or have an interest in a majority of the notes, they are CompuCredit’s creditors under the UFTA. According to Plaintiffs, Defendants are defrauding CompuCredit’s noteholders by transferring the company’s assets to themselves (as the primary stockholders), while knowing that doing so will make it impossible for CompuCredit to repurchase the notes when they become due.

Plaintiffs assert that on November 9, 2009, CompuCredit notified the market that it was in severe financial distress by reporting on its quarterly filing its decreasing asset values, increasing losses, and lack of liquidity, and by indicating that it would not be able to repurchase the $230 million of notes due in 2012. Plaintiffs allege that the company’s November 2009 10-Q showed that it had lost $487 million year-to-date, and that its 2009 10-K showed a $541 million loss by that year’s end; further, shareholder equity by year’s end was $189 million, representing 26% of its value in the prior year. Plaintiffs contend that CompuCredit has repeatedly announced its losses, stating in its January 2010 Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure that it had lost up to $60 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 and that it anticipated additional losses in 2010. Plaintiffs assert that CompuCredit’s equity fell from $747 million in December 2008 to $195 million in March 2010. Plaintiffs further assert that on a pro-forma balance sheet basis, CompuCredit is already insolvent.

Plaintiffs allege that CompuCredit also stated in its November 2009 10-Q and its 2009 10-K that it would not be able to repurchase the 3.675% notes in May 2012 without relying upon debt or equity issuance or exchange offerings. Thus, Plaintiffs allege that at least by November 2009, CompuCredit was not only objectively aware of its likely inability to repurchase the notes due in May 2012, but had also publicly announced its concerns.

Plaintiffs allege that despite announcing its financial woes and suggesting that it would be unable to repurchase the May 2012 notes, CompuCredit nonetheless announced one month later in December 2009 that it was paying a cash dividend of about $24 million to CompuCredit shareholders. Plaintiffs contend that the dividend — allegedly the first dividend the company had ever paid — went primarily to David and Frank Hanna and other insiders as the majority shareholders. 3

*1321 CompuCredit also announced in November 2009 its intention to spin off Purpose financial Holdings, Inc. (the “FFH spinoff’), the microloan segment of its business. Plaintiffs contend the microloan segment is currently CompuCredit’s only profitable business and that like the dividend, the spin-off will primarily benefit corporate insiders such as the Hanna brothers. Plaintiffs allege that CompuCredit has also filed a detailed Form 10 statement reflecting the proposed terms of the spin-off. That statement shows that current shareholders — again, primarily corporate insiders — will receive a ratable portion of the shares of the spun-off micro-loan subsidiary, meaning that the corporate insiders will own a majority of the shares of the subsidiary. The result of the PFH spin-off, Plaintiffs allege, will be the transfer of more than $140 million in equity away from CompuCredit, leaving the company with only deteriorating assets against which lenders will not lend credit.

Plaintiffs further contend that the November and December 2009 announcement resulted in the artificial suppression of the market price of the notes, which dropped to a level indicative of an insolvent company, and that CompuCredit then attempted to force Plaintiffs into selling back the notes at the artificially depressed prices. On January 28, 2010, CompuCredit initiated a tender offer for the notes at prices lower than that at which they had traded on December 2, 2009. Plaintiffs allege CompuCredit initiated another tender offer on April 14, 2010 for the 3.625% notes, and threatened noteholders that if they did not accept the offer in a sufficient volume, the funds would instead be spent on repurchasing shares of common stock at a 30% premium above market price (which would again benefit the corporate insiders who are the majority shareholders).

The noteholders allege that as a result of CompuCredit’s actions, they have been left with a decision to either (1) tender their notes to CompuCredit at artificially depressed prices, or (2) retain the notes knowing that CompuCredit is intentionally rendering itself insolvent so that it will not have the ability to repurchase them at full value when they become due.

Plaintiffs contend that CompuCredit’s conduct demonstrates a strategy of stripping its assets and transferring them to corporate insiders without receiving a reasonably equivalent value and thereby rendering the company unable to meet its obligations to creditors such as Plaintiffs. Such actions, Plaintiffs contend, constitutes fraudulent transfers under the UFTA.

In June 2010, CompuCredit and the other Defendants filed the pending motions to dismiss, arguing that Plaintiffs’ UFTA claim should be dismissed because it (1) is contractually barred; (2) is not ripe for adjudication; (3) fails to state a prima facie case under the UFTA; (4) improperly seeks prospective relief; and (5) fails to comply with the heightened pleading standards for fraud allegations under Fed. R.Civ.P. 9(b). 4

II. Standard of Review

A complaint must be dismissed pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted if it does not plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly,

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770 F. Supp. 2d 1315, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28568, 2011 WL 987353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/akanthos-capital-management-llc-v-compucredit-holdings-corp-gand-2011.