Berry-Hill Galleries, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, last Friday closed on a $21-million loan, allowing it to stay in business, rather than liquidate under Chapter 7, according to the chief restructuring officer for the bankruptcy. That officer, Alan Jacobs of AMJ Advisors, said that the new loan (technically called “debtor-in-possession financing”) comes from American Capital Strategies Limited. It has allowed Berry-Hill to pay off its $17.5-million debt to ACG Credit Company, he said.
Jacobs added that Berry-Hill will use the excess $3.5 million from the new loan as “working capital,” and will devise a plan to satisfy other creditors with funds from its assets and operations. The gallery hopes to be out of Chapter 11 “by the end of the year,” Jacobs said.
American Capital Strategies now has a security interest in the New York gallery’s E. 70th Street townhouse. Jacobs indicated that while Berry-Hill is “open to all options” for raising capital, the townhouse, which is still on Stribling’s real-estate website, it not being “marketed fully.”
It remains to be seen how well this bluechip gallery will be able to operate under a financial cloud.