The Greenbrier Resort
BECKLEY – Attorneys for U.S. Sen. Jim Justice and his family businesses have submitted a redacted term sheet as ordered by a federal judge about financing to wipe out debt to a Texas creditor regarding control of The Greenbrier resort.
Justice
On May 26, U.S. District Judge Frank Volk directed the Greenbrier-related defendants to file a redacted version of the term sheet showing up to $500 million in new financing. The order after White Sulphur Springs Holdings, a Texas company affiliated with Omni Hotels & Resorts, against Justice, wife Cathy Justice, son James C. Justice and a slate of Greenbrier-related entities over hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged debt tied to the resort.
Attorneys for the Justice family and businesses also offered to let Volk see the unredacted version of the term sheet privately. They want Volk to push back all briefing deadlines for 60 days, continue a June 1 prehearing conference and a June 8 evidentiary hearing, and set a telephonic status conference the week of June 22.
Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, which is based in New York, is the lender, according to the redacted term sheet. It describes itself as “an opportunistic credit manager focusing on event-driven situations in which a catalyst may unlock investment value.”
“We focus on middle-market companies that are facing disruption, whether it be cyclical, secular or regulatory related,” the firm’s LinkedIn page states. “We also partner with high growth companies to provide structured capital solutions to fit the needs of those causing disruption. We deploy capital opportunistically across public, private, performing and distressed investment opportunities across North America and Europe.”
Founded in 2017, it says it serves as a partner to borrowers and structures loans that set a company up to succeed and will creatively tailor each investment to suit the needs of the company in a fiscally prudent manner. The firm manages more than $35 billion in assets.
The Justice Family Group LLC and a new holding company and subsidiary to be created prior to closing are the primary parties. The loan will be secured on a first-lien basis with a pledge of 100% equity in the borrower and all Greenbrier assets. Collateral includes development projects, land and timber farms. There also are personal guarantees by some of the parties, but those names are redacted in the court-visible term sheet.
Steve Ruby, a Charleston attorney representing the Justice parties, says Kennedy Lewis is concerned about public disclosure of certain strategies and commercial terms that could harm its competitive standing. Ruby says the redacted information usually is kept confidential in the finance industry.
“If the redacted terms in the redacted term sheet were publicly disclosed, they would provide the financing partners’ future counterparties with information that would not otherwise be available to them and that would give them an unfair advantage in negotiating transactions with the financing partner,” the filing states.
United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case numbers 5:26-cv-00257
