--- title: "First Brands Group's secured loans, lenders and collateral" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/first-brands-group/debt/ as_of: 2026-10-15 keywords: ["First Brands Group","Patrick James","Edward James","First Brands Group Holdings","Viceroy Private Capital","Carnaby Capital Holdings","Onset Financial","Point Bonita Capital","Jefferies","Raistone","Katsumi Global","Horizon Global","Brake Parts Inc","Ultinon","Trico","FRAM","Chapter 11","receivables factoring","off-balance-sheet financing","supply chain finance"] --- # First Brands Group's secured loans, lenders and collateral **Question.** How much did First Brands owe on its balance sheet, to whom, and on what security? **Answer.** At the September 2025 petition date the debtors reported about $6.1 billion of on-balance-sheet funded debt, besides about $2.3 billion of off-balance-sheet financings through special purpose vehicles, about $800 million of supply-chain-financing liabilities and about $2.3 billion of factoring liabilities. The funded debt consisted of an asset-based revolving facility agented by Bank of America, first-lien term loans in dollars and euros and second-lien term loans agented by Jefferies Finance LLC, and a $250 million side-car loan of June 2025, secured on two pools of collateral. A 2025 refinancing led by Jefferies was paused, and in September 2025 the side-car lenders accelerated, Bank of America refused further draws and Southstate Bank set off the last remaining liquidity of the U.S. entities. ## How much was owed - Analysis: The debtors' first-day declaration, executed on September 29, 2025, sorts the obligations at the petition date into four layers. About $6.1 billion was on-balance-sheet funded debt, held by First Brands Group Holdings, LLC and its debtor subsidiaries. About $2.3 billion was "off-balance sheet" financing incurred through special purpose vehicles and held by Viceroy Private Capital, LLC and its debtor subsidiaries. The rest was about $800 million of unsecured supply-chain-financing liabilities and, in addition, about $2.3 billion of factoring liabilities. [src-001] - Analysis: The declaration's debt table adds up to total debtor obligations of $9,295.4 million. Term loans account for $5,539.9 million: a $100 million first-lien letter-of-credit facility, first-lien term loans of $3,886.9 million in dollars and $763 million in euros, $250 million of side-car term loans and $540 million of second-lien term loans. The asset-based lending (ABL) obligations of $596.3 million comprise $226.9 million of loans and letters of credit and $369.4 million of ABL supply-chain-financing and cash-management obligations. Off-balance-sheet obligations of the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) come to $2,346.8 million (Aequum facilities $77.8 million, CarVal facilities $159.0 million, Evolution facilities $230 million and the Onset lease $1,880 million), and supply-chain-financing obligations to $812.4 million. Most balances are as of June 30, 2025, the Aequum, CarVal and Evolution balances as of July 31, 2025; the euro tranche is converted at 1.19 dollars per euro, and the side-car amount excludes a make-whole premium of about $26 million. [src-001] - Analysis: According to the same declaration, the audited consolidated financial statements for 2024 show total net sales of approximately $5 billion. With $6.1 billion of funded debt against reported EBITDA of $1.133 billion, the company was levered about five times at the petition date. Much of the funded debt had been raised for acquisitions between 2019 and 2024, which were primarily debt-financed, and annual debt service exceeded $900 million before counting any obligations under the Onset master leases. The declaration attributes part of the strain on liquidity before the filing to nearly $160 million of up-front integration costs in the twelve months to June 2025 (plant consolidation, severance, purchasing and insourcing), about $200 million spent on launching new programs between June and September 2025, and tariff-related costs of about $220 million as of the end of August 2025. [src-001] ## The loan agreements and their collateral - Analysis: The asset-based revolving facility dates from February 2, 2018, when First Brands Group, LLC entered into an ABL Credit Agreement as lead borrower, with Trico Limited (England and Wales) and Trico Belgium SA as further borrowers and First Brands Group Intermediate, LLC (formerly Trico Group Holdings, LLC) as parent. Bank of America, N.A. is administrative and collateral agent, as successor to Goldman Sachs Bank USA. The facility was originally up to $80 million, with total commitments of up to $250 million; at the petition date about $227 million was outstanding, about $133 million of borrowings and about $93 million of undrawn letters of credit. Debtor affiliates guarantee the obligations, which are secured by a first-priority lien on the ABL Priority Collateral and a third-priority lien on the Term Priority Collateral. [src-001] [src-023] - Analysis: On the same day First Brands Group, LLC, as borrower, and First Brands Group Intermediate, LLC, as parent, entered into a First Lien Term Loan Agreement, followed on February 26, 2019 by a Second Lien Term Loan Agreement. Jefferies Finance LLC is administrative and collateral agent of both as successor to Credit Suisse AG, Cayman Island Branch, which on the first-lien loan had itself succeeded Goldman Sachs Bank USA. At the petition date first-lien term loans of $3,886.9 million and $763 million were outstanding, including a $24.5 million bridge loan that certain first-lien lenders provided on September 25, 2025 so that the debtors could meet payroll and other critical payments, together with $540 million of second-lien term loans. The first-lien loans hold a first-priority lien on the Term Priority Collateral and a second-priority lien on the ABL Priority Collateral; the second-lien loans a second-priority lien on the Term Priority Collateral and a third-priority lien on the ABL Priority Collateral. [src-001] [src-023] - Analysis: The GLEIF record of the agent, Jefferies Finance LLC (LEI 549300SKVB18YSSIDT75), gives its previous legal name as Jefferies Babson Finance LLC, its jurisdiction as Delaware with registration number 3833598, its creation date as July 26, 2004, its headquarters as 520 Madison Avenue, New York, and its entity status as active. [src-037] - Analysis: A side-car first-lien term loan agreement followed on June 16, 2025, with Sagard Holdings Manager (US) LLC as Sagard administrative agent and GLAS USA LLC as GLAS administrative agent and collateral agent; $250 million of term loans were extended that day, secured by a first-priority lien on the Term Priority Collateral and a second-priority lien on the ABL Priority Collateral, and a side letter restricted new-money borrowing without the side-car lenders' consent. After the company failed to make an interest payment due on September 16, 2025, the side-car lenders accelerated the loan on September 24, 2025, including a make-whole premium of about $26 million, so that about $276 million was outstanding at the petition date. [src-001] - Analysis: The first-day declaration divides the collateral of the FBG debtors into two pools. On the ABL Priority Collateral (accounts, inventory, payment intangibles and deposit and securities accounts) the ABL lenders rank first; on the Term Priority Collateral (equipment and real property, intellectual property and equity interests) the first-lien, side-car and second-lien lenders rank ahead. Their rights are set out in an Amended and Restated Intercreditor Agreement dated February 26, 2019, and the debtor-in-possession (DIP) credit agreement refers to an Amended and Restated ABL Intercreditor Agreement among the first-lien collateral agent, the ABL agent, the second-lien administrative agent and the loan parties. [src-023] [src-001] - Analysis: In England, the Companies House charges register for Trico Limited (company number 00234268) records 16 charges, 3 outstanding and 13 satisfied. All three outstanding charges are in favour of Bank of America, N.A.: a debenture with a fixed charge over land created on July 31, 2020, and charges created on January 3, 2019 and on November 12, 2018, the last noted as released over all of the property or undertaking. A charge created on February 2, 2018 in favour of Goldman Sachs Bank USA as security trustee was satisfied on September 29, 2022. The register does not state which facility each charge secures; Trico Limited is a borrower under the ABL facility, for which Bank of America, N.A. is administrative and collateral agent as successor to Goldman Sachs Bank USA. [src-033] [src-001] ## The refinancing attempts of 2024 and 2025 - Analysis: Before the filing the company pursued three financing processes, according to the first-day declaration. From mid- to late 2024 it sought new term loans of about €1.3 to 1.5 billion by separating its operations outside North America, including the Trico and ANCO brands, into a new entity; the marketing was led by Banco Santander, S.A. and ended without sufficient lender interest. In July 2025 it launched a global refinancing led by Jefferies to raise about $6.2 billion, which was paused in August 2025 so that the company could complete a quality-of-earnings report requested by certain potential lenders. It also pursued bridge financing for a possible out-of-court sale. [src-001] - Analysis: Jefferies Financial Group Inc. gave its own account in a letter from its chief executive and president. Apart from one $300 million loan in 2023 that Jefferies underwrote, the letter said, every First Brands financing Jefferies arranged in the previous ten years was on a best-efforts basis, and the 2025 refinancing did not proceed because a quality-of-earnings report requested of and promised by First Brands was never delivered. The letter also set out the exposure of Jefferies Finance LLC, a 50/50 joint venture of MassMutual and Jefferies: collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) that it manages through its subsidiary Apex Credit Partners owned $48 million principal amount of First Brands term loans, with a current market value of about $17 million, and Apex CLOs had participated in $8.8 million of the DIP financing. [src-027] ## Defaults and the last liquidity in September 2025 - Analysis: The asset-based facility stopped funding in mid-September 2025. On September 15 the company tried to draw the remaining approximately $23 million; Bank of America, as ABL agent, said reserves would be established and refused to fund. On September 18 the agent alleged an event of default because the company could not pay its debts as they became due and set a $200 million reserve, producing an overadvance of about $168 million, and on September 19 it asserted that the purchase price paid for certain factored inventory was ABL collateral that had to be deposited into a controlled account. Under a forbearance agreement of September 25, 2025 the ABL lenders agreed not to exercise remedies until October 5, 2025, and the company agreed to provide reporting, accept restrictions on moving collateral and immediately discontinue certain factoring practices. [src-001] - Analysis: On September 23, 2025 the company learned that Southstate Bank had set off debts it said the company owed, about $30 million, against a company account holding about $27 million of working capital, described as the last remaining liquidity of the U.S. entities. According to the first-day declaration this left the company with only $14 million of cash, not enough to fund operating expenses including payroll, and led to the $24.5 million first-lien bridge loan of September 25, 2025. [src-001] ## Who held the loans - Analysis: At the first-day hearing, according to the transcript as quoted in a later court filing, the ad hoc group of lenders providing the debtor-in-possession financing was described as holding approximately 99 percent of the first-lien term loan, 100 percent of the first-lien side-car term loans and 83 percent of the second-lien term loans. [src-026] - Analysis: Filings of individual holders show the loans in investment portfolios. A prospectus that Palmer Square Capital BDC Inc. filed with the SEC on July 23, 2024 lists two loans to First Brands Group, LLC: a first-lien senior secured loan at 10.57% ("S + CSA + 5.00%") maturing March 30, 2027, with principal of 8,695,953 and fair value of 8,719,867, and a second-lien senior secured loan at 14.07% ("S + CSA + 8.50%") maturing March 24, 2028, with principal of 3,000,000 and fair value of 2,977,500. A payment date report as of July 8, 2026 for BlackRock European CLO III DAC, whose collateral manager is BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, lists among its holdings "First Brands Group LLC - 2023 Euro Incremental Term loan" (LoanX ID LX218476), a euro tranche of the company's term loans; the amount of the holding cannot be read reliably from the retained copy of the report's tables. [src-024] [src-064] - Analysis: A press report in October 2025 said that Marathon Asset Management held over $280 million of First Brands debt, citing a filing that is not in the retained record, and listed Monroe Capital, Antares Capital, Sagard, Värde Partners, Sycamore Tree Capital Partners and Alcentra, a Franklin Templeton affiliate, among other private credit firms holding the company's debt, without giving amounts for them. The report said the largest private-credit exposures appeared to be through collateralised loan obligations. [src-036] ## Sources - [src-001] Court record source · src-001 - [src-023] Court record source · src-023 - [src-037] LEI record 549300SKVB18YSSIDT75 (Jefferies Finance LLC), Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, 2026-10-15 - [src-033] Trico Limited (00234268): charges, Companies House - [src-027] Company statement source · src-027 - [src-026] Court record source · src-026 - [src-024] Palmer Square Capital BDC Inc. registration statement on Form N-2, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2024-07-23 - [src-064] Company statement source · src-064 - [src-036] Media source · src-036