A debt-financed acquisition of ailing Market Basket chain by ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas could end up driving up the revived chain's signature low prices — and drive off its loyal customers — according to experts who say the celebrated grocery titan will be newly beholden to creditors expecting immediate returns regardless of what it takes to nurse the company back to health.
"You spend cash on making sure that you get the ratios set and the loans repaid, and that's cash that is simply not available to be flexible enough to address the competition from Shaw's down the road, who will smell blood in the water," said Bob Reynolds, a former executive at the Safeway grocery chain and a consultant who advises companies on acquisitions.
"It hamstrings the flexibility of the operation to do those new and special things which are important not only to bringing an operation back, but to fighting off competition," Reynolds said.
The Herald reported yesterday that a key factor that has emerged in sales talks between Arthur T. and his rival cousin — majority shareholder Arthur S. Demoulas, who controls a 50.5 percent stake worth an estimated $1.5 billion — is how much the former CEO will pay up front, and how much his unknown backers would put up.
The backers, sources told the Herald, would want assurances Market Basket revenue can return to a point where the debt obligations can be paid.
Yet the 71-store chain has been hemorrhaging millions a day since managers and workers walked out in protest of Arthur T.'s ouster more than a month ago, and now several of its vendors have stopped doing business with the company. They have been joined by thousands of boycotting Market Basket customers who also demanded Arthur T.'s return.
Reynolds said he's skeptical business will return to pre-walkout levels in short order, especially if customers are faced with higher prices. "If I were making an equity investment and my payback was dependent upon the operation returning to its former glory, whatever that was, I wouldn't be very optimistic about that," he said.
Kevin Griffin, editor of The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, said Arthur T. may not be constrained in a typical way by debt financing because he has a loyal, proven executive team ready to return to work the second he resumes control.
"Sure, they'd have a monumental task ahead of them, but nobody's better suited to do it," Griffin said. "The financial structure of the business will be different, and having to service a significant amount of debt is going to be something new, but I think that they are a company that's very streamlined."
Both sides were mum yesterday on any developments, even as Gov. Deval Patrick — who met with them for five hours Sunday — said they seem to be at a "critical point." The parties have set a self-imposed deadline of tomorrow to make a deal.
"Frankly, it's taken longer than it should," Patrick told the Herald. "It's a very complicated transaction in which the employees are caught up. … What I want is to get a deal done because a deal seems to be a prerequisite for stabilizing the company."
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