It has been awhile since I have written. I have been completely subsumed in my attempts to keep the sharks from harvesting my client.
Negotiations were hard and complex. Ultimately the client could not live with the demands for additional security from the lender. A hard decision needed to be made. Give them the additional security, and if things go south, they lose all their equity that they built up over a lifetime of hard work. Or run the risk that the court will impose a court appointed receiver, effectively shutting down the business, but leaving the lender with only the level of security over assets they originally held.
The client decided not to risk their nest egg and let the judge decide whether or not to shut them down in circumstances where the business was up to date on all payments, and any past default was rectified.
We argued the matter on Monday in Toronto Commercial Court (the usual pool for the Bay Street sharks). The judge said he would release his decision Wednesday morning. As I write this, it is 2:10pm on Wednesday, and no decision.
In the meantime, we sit and wait to see if the axe is going to fall.