Sale process advances for bankrupt proton center with $550 million of bond debt

Potential buyers are showing interest in a Georgia-based proton therapy cancer center that sought bankruptcy protection in January to shed $550 million in bond debt.

Investment banker Matthew Caine with Solic Capital Advisors, which is marketing the Georgia ProtonCare Center, Inc., said at a hearing Wednesday the firm has engaged with dozens of potential buyers.

"We've got a lot of interested parties," Caine said in response to questions from U.S. Trustee attorney David Weidenbaum about whether the bidding process is competitive. "I would say we're pleased with the responses and the aggressive behavior of some of the parties that we're in dialogue with."

Judge Jeffery Cavender on Wednesday approved a fast-paced sale process for the center, which is owned by Provident Resources Group, Inc. and operated by Emory University, which is acting as the stalking horse bidder with a $110 million bid.

The Chapter 11, filed Jan. 22 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, comes after years of struggle and defaulted bond payments from Georgia's only proton therapy cancer treatment center. The GPCC is one of several municipal bond-financed proton centers facing distress across the country.

Caine said the bank reached out to 72 potential parties on the day of the bankruptcy filing, and the "vast majority" responded. Roughly one-third of those respondents have since said they're not interested, he added.

Emory's $110 million offer would bring significant haircuts to bondholders, who nevertheless agreed to the figure as part of the Chapter 11 plan.

The bondholders, represented by bond trustee UMB Bank NA, also have the right to make a credit bid.

Potential buyers include Georgia-based health systems, outpatient oncology providers, other proton therapy operators and private equity firms operating in the space, Caine said.

The team has 30 days to secure letters of interest. Bondholders have agreed to the relatively short time frame, UMB counsel Eric Blythe of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. told the judge.

"The longer this drags out the more costly it is," Blythe said. "We are hopeful there is an overbid," he added. "This is a unique asset and Solic has already engaged with everyone ... We don't think more time will add more value. We think the parties that are interested in it will participate."

Emory's bid was the result of months of negotiations and allows the facility to continue to operate and hastens the bankruptcy process, said the debtor's attorney David Gordon of Polsinelli PC.

"It is difficult to overstate the value that having Emory as our stalking horse brings to this case ? we have a known buyer with a rock solid reputation with the financial wherewithal to close this transaction," Gordon said. "We're going to try to increase the purchase price and the investment bankers are working on it, but the Emory bid is acceptable to our senior secured lender."

If the center is ultimately sold to another buyer, Emory is in line for a 4% "break up" fee, which would be paid by the bondholders.