v3.6.0.2
NOTES PAYABLE
9 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2016
Long-Term Debt, Unclassified [Abstract]  
Long-term Debt [Text Block]
NOTE 7 — NOTES PAYABLE
 
 
 
December 31,
2016
 
March 31,
2016
 
Notes payable consist of the following:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Foreign revolving credit facilities (A)
 
$
 
$
 
Note payable – GCP note (B)
 
 
219,514
 
 
211,580
 
Credit facility, net (C)
 
 
13,849,629
 
 
11,917,694
 
5% Convertible notes (D)
 
 
1,675,000
 
 
1,675,000
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total
 
$
15,744,143
 
$
13,804,274
 
 
A.
 
The Company has arranged various facilities aggregating €310,300 or $326,296 (translated at the December 31, 2016 exchange rate) with an Irish bank, including overdraft coverage, creditors’ insurance, customs and excise guaranty, and a revolving credit facility. These facilities are payable on demand, continue until terminated by either party, are subject to annual review, and call for interest at the lender’s AA1 rate minus 1.70%. The balance on the credit facilities included in notes payable was €0 at December 31 and March 31, 2016, respectively.
 
B.
 
In December 2009, GCP issued a promissory note (the “GCP Note”) in the aggregate principal amount of $211,580 to Gosling’s Export (Bermuda) Limited in exchange for credits issued on certain inventory purchases. The GCP Note matures on April 1, 2020, is payable at maturity, subject to certain acceleration events, and calls for annual interest of 5% to be accrued and paid at maturity. At March 31, 2016, $10,579 of accrued interest was converted to amounts due to affiliates. At December 31, 2016, $219,514, consisting of $211,580 of principal and $7,934 of accrued interest, due on the GCP Note is included in long-term liabilities. At March 31, 2016, $211,580 of principal due on the GCP Note is included in long-term liabilities.
 
C.
 
The Company and CB-USA are parties to an Amended and Restated Loan and Security Agreement (as amended, the “Loan Agreement”) with ACF FinCo I LP (“ACF”), which provides for availability (subject to certain terms and conditions) of a facility (the “Credit Facility”) to provide working capital, including capital to finance purchases of aged whiskeys in support of the growth of the Jefferson’s bourbons, in the amount of $19.0 million, including a sublimit in the maximum principal amount of $7.0 million to permit the Company to acquire aged whiskey inventory (the “Purchased Inventory Sublimit”) subject to certain conditions set forth in the Loan Agreement. The Credit Facility matures on July 31, 2019 (the “Maturity Date”). The monthly facility fee is 0.75% per annum of the maximum Credit Facility amount (excluding the Purchased Inventory Sublimit).
 
Pursuant to the Loan Agreement, the Company and CB-USA may borrow up to the lesser of (x) $19.0 million and (y) the sum of the borrowing base calculated in accordance with the Loan Agreement and the Purchased Inventory Sublimit. The Company and CB-USA may prepay the Credit Facility in whole or the Purchased Inventory Sublimit, in whole or in part, subject to certain prepayment penalties as set forth in the Loan Agreement. The Purchased Inventory Sublimit replaced the bourbon term loan (the “Bourbon Term Loan”), which was paid in full in the normal course of business in May 2015.
 
In connection with the Loan Agreement, the Company entered into a Reaffirmation Agreement with (i) certain of its officers, including John Glover, Chief Operating Officer, T. Kelley Spillane, Senior Vice President - Global Sales, and Alfred J. Small, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Secretary and (ii) certain junior lenders, including Frost Gamma Investments Trust, an entity affiliated with Phillip Frost, M.D., a director and a principal shareholder of the Company, Mark E. Andrews, III, the Company’s Chairman, an affiliate of Richard J. Lampen, a director and the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, an affiliate of Glenn Halpryn, a former director, Dennis Scholl, a former director, and Vector Group Ltd., a more than 5% shareholder of the Company, of which Richard Lampen is an executive officer, Henry Beinstein, a director of the Company, is a director and Phillip Frost, M.D. is a principal shareholder, which, among other things, reaffirms the existing Validity and Support Agreements by and among each officer, the Company and ACF.
 
ACF also required as a condition to entering into an amendment to the Loan Agreement in August 2015 that ACF enter into a participation agreement with certain related parties of the Company, including Frost Gamma Investments Trust ($150,000), Mark E. Andrews, III ($50,000), Richard J. Lampen ($100,000), Brian L. Heller, Special Counsel to and Assistant Secretary of the Company ($42,500), and Alfred J. Small ($15,000), to allow for the sale of participation interests in the Purchased Inventory Sublimit and the inventory purchased with the proceeds thereof. The participation agreement provides that ACF’s commitment to fund each advance of the Purchased Inventory Sublimit shall be limited to seventy percent (70%), up to an aggregate maximum principal amount for all advances equal to $4.9 million. Under the terms of the participation agreement, the participants receive interest at the rate of 11% per annum. The Company is not a party to the participation agreement. However, the Company and CB-USA are party to a fee letter with the junior participants (including the related party junior participants) pursuant to which the Company and CB-USA were obligated to pay the junior participants a closing fee of $18,000 on the effective date of the First Amendment to the Loan Agreement and are obligated to pay a commitment fee of $18,000 on each anniversary of the effective date until the junior participants’ obligations are terminated pursuant to the participation agreement.
 
The Company may borrow up to the maximum amount of the Credit Facility, provided that the Company has a sufficient borrowing base (as defined in the Loan Agreement). The Credit Facility interest rate (other than with respect to the Purchased Inventory Sublimit) is the rate that, when annualized, is the greatest of (a) the Prime Rate plus 3.00%, (b) the LIBOR Rate plus 5.50% and (c) 6.0%. The interest rate applicable to the Purchased Inventory Sublimit is the rate, that when annualized, is the greatest of (a) the Prime Rate plus 4.25%, (b) the LIBOR Rate plus 6.75% and (c) 7.50%. Interest is payable monthly in arrears, on the first day of every month on the average daily unpaid principal amount of the Credit Facility. After the occurrence and during the continuance of any “Default” or “Event of Default” (as defined under the Loan Agreement), the Company is required to pay interest at a rate that is 3.25% per annum above the then applicable Credit Facility interest rate. The Loan Agreement contains EBITDA targets allowing for further interest rate reductions in the future. The Credit Facility currently bears interest at 6.0% (reflecting a discount for achieving one such EBITDA target) and the Purchased Inventory Sublimit currently bears interest at 7.75%. The Company is required to pay down the principal balance of the Purchased Inventory Sublimit within 15 banking days from the completion of a bottling run of bourbon from the bourbon inventory stock purchased with funds borrowed under the Purchased Inventory Sublimit in an amount equal to the purchase price of such bourbon. The unpaid principal balance of the Credit Facility, all accrued and unpaid interest thereon, and all fees, costs and expenses payable in connection with the Credit Facility, are due and payable in full on the Maturity Date. In addition to closing fees, ACF receives facility fees and a collateral management fee (each as set forth in the Loan Agreement). The Company’s obligations under the Loan Agreement are secured by the grant of a pledge and a security interest in all of its assets.
 
The Loan Agreement contains standard borrower representations and warranties for asset-based borrowing and a number of reporting obligations and affirmative and negative covenants. The Loan Agreement includes negative covenants that, among other things, restrict the Company’s ability to create additional indebtedness, dispose of properties, incur liens, and make distributions or cash dividends. At December 31, 2016, the Company was in compliance, in all material respects, with the covenants under the Loan Agreement.
 
At December 31 and March 31, 2016, $13,849,629 and $11,917,694, respectively, due on the Credit Facility, net, was included in long-term liabilities, including $3,551,000 and $2,625,000 outstanding under the Purchased Inventory Sublimit, respectively. At December 31 and March 31, 2016, there was $5,024,528 and $6,911,411, respectively, in potential availability under the Credit Facility, net.
 
In connection with the adoption of ASU 2015-03, the Company included $125,843 and $170,895 of debt issuance costs at December 31 and March 31, 2016, respectively, as direct deductions from the carrying amount of the related debt liability.
 
In January 2017, the Company acquired $1,030,000 in aged bulk bourbon under the Purchased Inventory Sublimit with additional borrowings from certain related parties of the Company, including Frost Gamma Investments Trust ($51,500), Richard J. Lampen ($34,333), Mark E. Andrews, III ($17,167), Brian L. Heller ($14,592), and Alfred J. Small ($5,150), as junior participants in the Purchased Inventory Sublimit with respect to such purchase.
        
 
D.
In October 2013, the Company entered into a 5% Convertible Subordinated Note Purchase Agreement (the “Note Purchase Agreement”) with the purchasers party thereto, under which the Company issued an aggregate initial principal amount of $2,125,000 of unsecured subordinated notes (the “Convertible Notes”). The Convertible Notes bear interest at a rate of 5% per annum, payable quarterly, until their maturity date of December 15, 2018. The Convertible Notes, and accrued but unpaid interest thereon, are convertible in whole or in part from time to time at the option of the holders thereof into shares of the Company’s common stock at a conversion price of $0.90 per share (the “Conversion Price”). The Convertible Notes may be prepaid in whole or in part at any time without penalty or premium, but with payment of accrued interest to the date of prepayment. The Convertible Notes contain customary events of default, which, if uncured, entitle each note holder to accelerate the due date of the unpaid principal amount of, and all accrued and unpaid interest on, the Convertible Notes.
 
The purchasers of the Convertible Notes included related parties of the Company, including an affiliate of Dr. Phillip Frost ($500,000), Mark E. Andrews, III ($50,000), an affiliate of Richard J. Lampen ($50,000), an affiliate of Glenn Halpryn ($200,000), Dennis Scholl ($100,000), and Vector Group Ltd. ($200,000).
 
The Company may forcibly convert all or any part of the Convertible Notes and all accrued but unpaid interest thereon if (i) the average daily volume of the Company’s common stock (as reported on the principal market or exchange on which the common stock is listed or quoted for trading) exceeds $50,000 per trading day and (ii) the volume weighted average price of the common stock for at least twenty (20) trading days during any thirty (30) consecutive trading day period exceeds 250% of the then-current Conversion Price. Any forced conversion will be applied ratably to the holders of all Convertible Notes issued pursuant to the Note Purchase Agreement based on each holder’s then-current note holdings.
 
In connection with the Note Purchase Agreement, each purchaser of the Convertible Notes was required to execute a joinder to the subordination agreement, by and among ACF and certain other junior lenders to the Company; the Company is not a party to the Subordination Agreement.
 
At each of December 31 and March 31, 2016, $1,675,000 of principal due on the Convertible Notes was included in long-term liabilities.