4L Holdings, the parent company for Clover Wireless, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. | TheaDesign/Shutterstock
A major North American phone repair and remarketing company has received court approval to restructure its debt, allowing it to come out of bankruptcy in the coming days.
Illinois-headquartered 4L Holdings, the parent company for Clover Wireless, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. The filing provides insight into the company’s business partners, including some large and recognizable companies: HP, Uber, Samsung, Batteries Plus, Blackberry and others.
It also showed 4L Holdings estimates it has up to $50,000 in assets and between $500 million and $1 billion in liabilities.
Doing business as Clover Technologies Group, 4L Holdings used to own Clover Imaging, a large printer cartridge remanufacturing and printer parts company. But with Clover Technologies Group struggling under a heavy debt load, it sold Clover Imaging in December, using money from the sale to help pay down debt.
After selling the printer cartridge business, 4L Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking to restructure its debt, including converting debt to equity. According to a Jan. 22 press release, the bankruptcy court approved its repackaging plan of reorganization, “paving the way for the reorganized company to successfully emerge from Chapter 11 in the coming days.”
Clover Technologies Group also recently acquired Teleplan International, a Netherlands-based provider of electronics supply chain services (Teleplan was not included in the bankruptcy filing).
“We appreciate the dedication and support of our extraordinary employees, customers and partners during this process, as well as the strong support of our lenders and sponsors,” Dan Perez, CEO of Teleplan and Clover Wireless, stated in the press release. “We are also well on our way to integrating Clover Wireless and Teleplan to unlock the customer value promised by the combination.”
Window into Clover’s business partners
Clover Wireless now operates two of North America’s largest mobile device repair centers in North America. Both R2-certified facilities – one originally Clover’s and the second originally Teleplan’s – are located in Mexico.
The company provides returns management, repairs and recycles mobile devices, runs trade-in and buyback programs, and resells used electronics. It serves wireless carriers, manufacturers, retailers, insurance providers and enterprise businesses. The bankruptcy filing provides insight into exactly which companies it works with.
The following creditors have the 10 largest unsecured claims, all of which are trade debt:
- Rogers: The Canadian telecommunications and media giant has a $1.04 million claim.
- HP: The Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech giant is owed $744,000
- Portier, LLC: The parent company for Uber Eats, Portier LLC is owed $478,000.
- Samsung Telecommunications: The South Korea-headquartered OEM is owed $282,000.
- Batteries Plus: The Hartland, Wis.-based company has a $272,000 claim.
- Fido: The Canadian cellphone service provider, which is owned by Rogers, is owed $272,000.
- Yuchuang Electro-Optical: The Hong Kong company has a $245,000 claim.
- Hong Kong Witzvah Technology: The Hong Kong company has a $231,000 claim.
- Blackberry: The Waterloo, Ontario company is owed $200,000.
- Savino Del Bene: The Italy-based global logistics company has a $115,000 claim.
Clover Technologies Group’s reorganization plan leaves unsecured claims unimpaired, the company said in court papers, meaning those debts won’t be cancelled as part of the bankruptcy process.
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