Files Voluntary Petitions for Chapter 11
Protection to Implement Restructuring; Proposed Plan of
Reorganization Creates Efficient Path to Resume Account Access and
Return Value to Customers
Voyager Has Approximately $1.3 Billion of Crypto Assets on the Platform,
More Than $350 Million of Cash Held
in the FBO Account for Customers at Metropolitan Commercial Bank,
and Claims Against Three Arrows Capital of More Than $650 Million1
NEW
YORK, July 5, 2022 /CNW/ - Voyager Digital
Ltd. ("Voyager" or the "Company") (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA:
UCD2), today announced that it has commenced a voluntary Chapter 11
process to maximize value for all stakeholders. As part of this
process, the Company and its main operating subsidiaries filed
voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York (the "Court"). The Company intends to
seek recognition of the Chapter 11 case of Voyager in the Ontario
Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) pursuant to the
Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
"This comprehensive reorganization is the best way to protect
assets on the platform and maximize value for all stakeholders,
including customers," said Stephen
Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer of Voyager. "Voyager's
platform was built to empower investors by providing access to
crypto asset trading with simplicity, speed, liquidity, and
transparency. While I strongly believe in this future, the
prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets over the
past few months, and the default of Three Arrows Capital ("3AC") on
a loan from the Company's subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, require
us to take deliberate and decisive action now. The chapter 11
process provides an efficient and equitable mechanism to maximize
recovery."
The proposed Plan of Reorganization ("Plan") would, upon
implementation, resume account access and return value to
customers. Under this Plan, which is subject to change given
ongoing discussions with other parties, and requires Court
approval, customers with crypto in their account(s) will receive in
exchange a combination of the crypto in their account(s), proceeds
from the 3AC recovery, common shares in the newly reorganized
Company, and Voyager tokens. The plan contemplates an opportunity
for customers to elect the proportion of common equity and crypto
they will receive, subject to certain maximum thresholds.
Customers with USD deposits in their account(s) will receive
access to those funds after a reconciliation and fraud prevention
process is completed with Metropolitan Commercial Bank.
The Company continues to evaluate all strategic alternatives to
maximize value for stakeholders.
The Company has over $110 million
of cash and owned crypto assets on hand, which will provide
liquidity to support day-to-day operations during the Chapter 11
process, in addition to more than $350
million of cash held in the For Benefit of Customers (FBO)
account at Metropolitan Commercial Bank. Voyager also has
approximately $1.3 billion of crypto
assets on its platform, plus claims against Three Arrows Capital
("3AC") of more than $650
million.
Voyager previously announced that its subsidiary, Voyager
Digital LLC, issued a notice of default to 3AC for failure to make
the required payments on its previously disclosed loan of 15,250
BTC and $350 million USDC. Voyager is
actively pursuing all available remedies for recovery from 3AC,
including through the court-supervised processes in the
British Virgin Islands and
New York.
The Company also announced the appointment of a four new
independent directors: Matthew Ray
at Voyager Digital Ltd.; Scott Vogel
at Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc.; and Jill
Frizzley and Timothy Pohl at
Voyager Digital LLC. Information regarding their backgrounds and
relevant experience is included at the end of this release.
As part of the reorganization process, the Company will file
customary "First Day" motions to allow it to maintain operations in
the ordinary course. Voyager intends to pay its employees in the
usual manner and continue their primary benefits and certain
customer programs without disruption. The Company expects to
receive court approval for all these routine requests. Trading,
deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards on the Voyager platform
remain temporarily suspended.
Parties with questions about the chapter 11 process may contact
the Company's Claims Agent, Stretto, at +1 (855) 473-8665
(toll-free in the U.S.) or +1 (949) 271-6507 (for parties outside
the U.S.). They have also set up a website at
http://cases.stretto.com/Voyager, which includes court documents
and other information.
To effectuate the restructuring process, the Company has engaged
Moelis & Company and The Consello Group as financial advisors,
Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal advisors, and Berkeley Research
Group, LLC, as restructuring advisor.
New Independent Directors to
Provide Additional Leadership and Expertise
Matthew Ray joins as an
independent director of Voyager Digital Ltd. Mr. Ray is the Founder
and Managing Partner of Portage Point Partners where he has served
as Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO), Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), Chairman, Lead Independent Director, Special Restructuring
Committee Chairperson and Strategic Advisor leading wide-ranging
transformations and restructurings for both private and public
companies.
Scott Vogel joins as an
independent director of Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc. Mr. Vogel
has broad experience sitting on numerous boards of directors for
financially distressed companies in a diverse set of industries.
Mr. Vogel carefully and skillfully manages complex situations,
develops restructuring plans and post-restructuring organizational
priorities, builds consensus amongst and between stakeholders and
management, executes complex capital market and corporate
transactions, facilitates clear lines of communication, and aligns
management incentives to ensure accountability.
Jill Frizzley joins as an
independent director of Voyager Digital LLC. Ms. Frizzley is a
corporate governance expert with significant experience serving on
boards of directors and advising on corporate governance,
restructuring, bankruptcies, and mergers and acquisitions.
Leveraging over two decades of legal practice in financial
restructuring and insolvency, Ms. Frizzley has a deep wealth of
knowledge encompassing corporate, financial, and governance matters
across a wide range of industries.
Timothy Pohl joins as an
independent director of Voyager Digital LLC. Mr. Pohl has extensive
experience and expertise in all aspects of corporate restructurings
and financing, mergers and acquisitions, valuation, liquidity and
balance sheet assessment and analysis, capital markets, corporate
law, restructuring law, and litigation. Mr. Pohl currently serves
as a Senior Advisor in a number of situations, as well as an
Independent Director for a number of corporations. Mr. Pohl has
also advised across a wide range of industries and has provided
expert testimony on valuation and corporate and restructuring
matters.
About Voyager Digital
Ltd.
Voyager Digital Ltd.'s (TSX: VOYG) (OTCQX: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2) US
subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, is a cryptocurrency platform in
the United States founded in 2018
to bring choice, transparency, and cost-efficiency to the
marketplace. Voyager offers a secure way to trade over 100
different crypto assets using its easy-to-use mobile application.
Through its subsidiary Coinify ApS, Voyager provides crypto payment
solutions for both consumers and merchants around the globe. To
learn more about the company, please
visit https://www.investvoyager.com.
Forward
Looking Statements
Certain information in this press release, including, but not
limited to, statements regarding the restructuring process, the
restructuring Plan, available remedies for recovery from 3AC,
intended filings as part of the restructuring process, resumption
of account access, return of value to customers, the ability of
Voyager to continue as a going concern, exploration of strategic
alternatives, discussions with third parties in respect of
strategic alternatives and the results of those discussions, the
temporary nature of the suspension of the platform, future growth
and performance of the business, the exploration of strategic
alternatives, future adoption of digital assets, anticipated trends
and challenges in our business and industry, the regulation of
digital assets offerings, the impact of the 3AC default on the
Company, the Company's liquidity and ability to satisfy customer
orders and withdrawals and the Company's anticipated results may
constitute forward looking information (collectively,
forward-looking statements), which can be identified by the use of
terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate,"
"project," "estimate," "intend," "continue" or "believe" (or the
negatives) or other similar variations. Forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
that may cause Voyager's actual results, performance or
achievements to be materially different from any of its future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very
competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from
time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all
risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business
or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these
risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the future events and trends
discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results
could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or
implied in the forward-looking statements. It is uncertain as to
the timing or results of the restructuring process or the terms of
the final restructuring plan, when account access will resume, the
value to be returned to customers, what amount Voyager will be able
to recover from 3AC for non-payment or the legal remedies available
to Voyager in connection with such non-payment or the impact on the
future business, cash flows, liquidity and prospects of Voyager as
a result of 3AC's non-payment. Forward looking statements are
subject to the risk that the global economy, industry, or the
Company's businesses and investments do not perform as anticipated,
that revenue or expenses estimates may not be met or may be
materially less or more than those anticipated, that parties to
whom the Company lends assets are able to repay such loans in full
and in a timely manner, that trading momentum does not continue or
the demand for trading solutions declines, customer acquisition
does not increase as planned, product and international expansion
do not occur as planned, risks of compliance with laws and
regulations that currently apply or become applicable to the
business and those other risks contained in the Company's public
filings, including in its Management Discussion and Analysis and
its Annual Information Form (AIF). Factors that could cause actual
results of the Company and its businesses to differ materially from
those described in such forward-looking statements include, but are
not limited to, the results of the restructuring process and the
terms of the restructuring plan, if such a plan is ultimately
agreed to, the results from the exploration of strategic
alternatives, the inability to resume trading, deposits,
withdrawals and rewards on the platform in a timely manner, an
inability to drawdown under the credit facility or access other
sources of financing, an increase in customer demands for
withdrawals from the platform, any insolvency or similar
proceedings with respect to 3AC, our ability to find a strategic
alternative, a decline in the digital asset market or general
economic conditions; changes in laws or approaches to regulation,
the failure or delay in the adoption of digital assets and the
blockchain ecosystem by institutions; changes in the volatility of
crypto currency, changes in demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum,
changes in the status or classification of cryptocurrency assets,
cybersecurity breaches, a delay or failure in developing
infrastructure for the trading businesses or achieving mandates and
gaining traction; failure to grow assets under management, an
adverse development with respect to an issuer or party to the
transaction or failure to obtain a required regulatory approval.
Readers are cautioned that Assets on Platform and trading volumes
fluctuate and may increase and decrease from time to time and that
such fluctuations are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking
statements, past and present performance and trends are not
guarantees of future performance, accordingly, you should not put
undue reliance on forward-looking statements, current or past
performance, or current or past trends. Information identifying
assumptions, risks, and uncertainties relating to the Company are
contained in its filings with the Canadian securities regulators
available at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements in this
press release are applicable only as of the date of this release or
as of the date specified in the relevant forward-looking statement
and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any
forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after
that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events,
except as required by law. The Company assumes no obligation to
provide operational updates, except as required by law. If the
Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no
inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with
respect to those or other forward-looking statements, unless
required by law. Readers are cautioned that past performance is not
indicative of future performance. There is no assurance that the
funds available under the loan agreement will be available or, even
if available will, together with any other assets of Voyager be
sufficient to safeguard assets.
The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the information
contained herein.
__________________
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1 The
amounts are as of June 30, 2022, and are preliminary, non-reviewed
and unaudited, and subject to final adjustments following
completion of quarterly and year-end close procedures.
|
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SOURCE Voyager Digital Ltd.