Revlon Confirms It Has Reached a Deal to Avoid Bankruptcy

November 12, 2020

Revlon said Thursday it has closed a debt-exchange with creditors including billionaire Carl Icahn that will save the company from bankruptcy.

Confirming an exclusive Wednesday report by The Post, the cosmetics giant controlled by Ron Perelman said early Thursday that it “does not expect that any bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings will be necessary” after closing a debt exchange offer ahead of a Nov. 16 default deadline.

Now the money-losing company — whose already-weak business got slammed during the pandemic as demand for beauty products plummeted — has no debt maturities until 2024 so it has time to stabilize operations.

Revlon said 69 percent of $343 million in bonds agreed to swap their debt for new debt that has a later maturity. Perelman’s team struck a deal Tuesday night with Icahn, clearing what was the biggest hurdle in the deal, sources told The Post.

Holders of $107 million in bonds, representing 31 percent of outstanding bondholders, will get paid in full, Revlon said.

The Post reported exclusively this week that Revlon said it could not find holders of about $90 million in bonds and that they were mom-and-pop retail investors. There is speculation Perelman owns many of the untendered bonds and will now make a nice profit from his positions.

“Thats a huge percentage of holders getting paid in full, and a huge disparity in value paid,” said distressed investment banker Peter Kaufman, President of Gordian group, who is not involved in Revlon. “From the public facts, it feels like the holders just blinked.”

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