NOBLE, Vice Chancellor.
This dispute is the latest in an ongoing feud among Plaintiff The Renco Group, Inc. ("Renco") and Defendants MacAndrews AMG Holdings LLC ("AMG"), MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. ("M&F"), and Ronald O. Perelman.
In 2004, Renco restructured its ownership interest in AM General LLC ("AM General"), which manufactures and sells a military vehicle commonly known as the Humvee. Pursuant to an agreement between Renco and M&F (i.e., the Holdco Agreement), Renco transferred its ownership of AM General to a newly created limited liability company named Holdco. Renco and AMG, an affiliate of M&F, are the only members of Holdco, and AMG is the managing member. The Holdco Agreement also provides a measure—the Revalued Capital Accounts—for determining the members' relative capital interests in Holdco.
The Holdco Agreement expressly forbids Holdco from making any distributions to AMG if "it would cause [AMG's] Revaluated Capital Account to be equal to or less than 20% of the aggregate Revalued Capital Accounts of all Members in [Holdco]."
AM General, as well as various Renco-affiliated entities, is the sponsor of a defined-benefit pension plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"). If a pension plan is terminated with unfunded benefit liabilities, then the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (the "PBGC"), which administers the United States' pension insurance program, can become the trustee of the terminated plan and also guarantee the payment of pension obligations.
The Revalued Capital Accounts are calculated based on a valuation of AM General if "all of the asserts of [AM General] were sold for their respective gross fair market values . . . and the resulting Profits, Losses and all other items of income, gain, loss and deduction were allocated to the Members . . . ."
On October 12, 2012, Renco notified AMG that Renco believed that AMG's Revalued Capital Account was less than 20 percent of the members' Revalued Capital Accounts.
On October 23, 2012, AMG caused Holdco to move for a preliminary injunction requiring Ilshar to distribute to Holdco the Retained Distribution. On December 21, 2012, the Court granted Holdco's motion and ordered Ilshar to distribute to Holdco the Retained Distribution.
Notwithstanding Renco's letter, AMG caused Holdco to distribute to AMG both the Tax Distribution and the Retained Distribution on December 28, 2012 (the "December Distributions"). In response, Renco filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on December 31, 2012, contending (1) that AMG is prohibited from making any distributions until the Revalued Capital Accounts are determined in accordance with the appraisal procedure; and (2) that AMG did not make a reasonable determination of the Revalued Capital Accounts as required by Section 4.4 of the Holdco Agreement. Thereafter, AMG opposed Renco's efforts to obtain expedited proceedings. The Court granted Renco's motion for expedited proceedings in an opinion dated January 18, 2013. The Court also held that Renco was entitled to most of the limited expedited discovery it had requested.
During December 2012, AMG made a determination of the members' Revalued Capital Accounts in connection with the December Distributions (the "December determination"). It summarized its determination in a memorandum dated December 24, 2012 (the "December Memo"). A brief overview of the December determination follows.
First, AMG estimated the fair market value of Holdco's interest in Ilshar by adopting the value of Holdco's interest in Ilshar provided by Renco.
The DCF analysis produced a fair market value for AM General of [redacted.data] billion. Holdco's equity interest in AM General was valued at [redacted.data] billion.
On February 28, 2013, AMG caused Holdco to distribute approximately $19.2 million to AMG and $7.4 million to Renco (the "February Distribution").
Renco contends that the Court should grant its motion for a preliminary injunction for two reasons. First, it asserts that AMG did not reasonably determine the members' Revalued Capital Accounts before authorizing the December and February Distributions. Second, it contends that the Holdco Agreement requires completion of the appraisal procedure (if invoked) before any distributions are permitted. As to the former assertion, Renco asserts, among other things, that (1) AMG's cash flow projections were objectively unreasonable; (2) AMG's use of a single comparable transaction to derive an EBITDA multiple was unreasonable; and (3) AMG's DCF analyses were unreasonable because they did not include hundreds of millions of dollars in retirement and pension obligations.
With respect to the latter contention, Renco asserts that the Holdco Agreement implicitly prohibits distributions until the appraisal procedure (if invoked) has been completed. Otherwise, Renco argues, it would potentially expose the parties to controlled group liability under ERISA and would undermine various provisions in the Holdco Agreement designed to protect Renco from exposure to AM General's pension obligations.
AMG, in response, contends (1) that the Holdco Agreement does not prohibit—explicitly or implicitly—distributions when the appraisal procedure is invoked and (2) that it made a reasonable determination of the members' Revalued Capital Accounts because it relied upon AM General's management's projections.
To establish an imminent threat of irreparable harm, Renco relies primarily on Section 15.14 of the Holdco Agreement to argue that AMG has waived its objections to the irreparable harm requirement. Renco also contends that absent an injunction, it will be deprived of its rights under the Holdco Agreement. Finally, Renco asserts that the balance of the equities favor granting a preliminary injunction because AMG will suffer no serious harm from having Holdco, which it controls, hold the funds for distribution until the appraisal process is completed.
In order to succeed on its preliminary injunction motion, Renco must demonstrate: (1) a reasonable probability of success on the merits; (2) that it will suffer immediate and irreparable harm if an injunction is not granted; and (3) that the balance of the equities favors the issuance of an injunction.
The Court's analysis of Renco's first claim is guided by several well-established Delaware contract interpretation principles. First, contracts must be construed as a whole, giving "each provision and term effect, so as not to render any part of the contract mere surplusage."
In light of the parties' undisputed intention to protect against ERISA liability, Renco contends that the Holdco Agreement can only reasonably be interpreted as prohibiting distributions once the appraisal procedure has been invoked.
Renco relies upon various provisions in the Holdco Agreement to support its contention that the appraisal process prohibits any future distributions.
When viewed together, these provisions confirm that the parties intended to protect (1) Holdco from exposure to the pension liabilities of Renco and its affiliates and (2) Renco from exposure to the pension liabilities of AM General. However, none of these provisions explicitly prohibits distributions after the appraisal process has been invoked. Section 9.4(c) is particularly illustrative of AMG's concern that AM General and Holdco might become part of Renco's controlled group and become subject to Renco and its affiliates' pension liabilities under ERISA. To guard against that risk, Section 9.4(c) confers upon AMG the right to stop any distribution that Holdco intends to distribute to AMG:
Importantly, Section 9.4(c) affords AMG rights to protect itself against distributions that might reduce its Revalued Capital Account to 20 percent or lower. Section 9.4(b) affords the exact same rights to Renco as Section 9.4(c) affords to AMG, thereby protecting Renco from receiving any distributions that might reduce its Revalued Capital Account to 20 percent or lower and becoming subject to the pension liabilities of AMG and its affiliates.
Renco argues that AMG's interpretation would render the various provisions in Section 8.3 meaningless. However, Section 8.3 is consistent with, and provides support to, AMG's interpretation. As described above, Section 8.3 includes several "fail-safe mechanisms" to protect Renco's Revalued Capital Account from equaling or exceeding the 80 percent threshold. Those mechanisms only become operative after a determination has been made that Renco's Revalued Capital Account has reached or is approaching the 80 percent threshold. Given Section 9.4(c), a reasonable third party would surmise that AMG had a predominate interest in controlling distributions to itself and ensuring that Renco's Revalued Capital Account did not equal or exceed the 80 percent threshold. In this way, "Section 9.4(c) is consistent with Section 8.3(b) and can be read together without rendering any term superfluous."
Renco, in effect, requests that the Court bootstrap a supposedly "implicit" term into the Holdco Agreement. Regardless of whether Renco's implicit term is consistent with the contract as a whole, the Court should not read into the contract an ambiguity where none exists or rewrite the contract to add a limitation that the parties presumably did not agree upon. Because the relevant provisions in the Holdco Agreement are unambiguous, the plain language of the Holdco Agreement controls as the best evidence of the parties' intent. That intent is clear: the Holdco Agreement does not contain the limitation that Renco seeks to impose. Accordingly, Renco has not established a reasonable probability that the invocation of the appraisal procedure prohibits any future distributions until the appraisal process is completed.
In its second claim, Renco asserts that AMG did not reasonably determine the value of the Revalued Capital Accounts before it made the December and February Distributions. Specifically, Renco asserts that: (1) the cash flow projections were objectively unreasonable; (2) the use of only a single year of projected cash flows in the December DCF valuation was per se unreasonable; (3) the EBITDA multiples used in the DCF valuations were unreasonable because they (a) were derived from a single comparable transaction and (b) were significantly higher than the average EBITDA multiples for comparable companies; and (4) AMG assigned a much greater value to AM General's commercial vehicle assembly business than was justified.
AMG contends that its DCF analyses were reasonable because it employed AM General's management's most current cash flow projections.
"Delaware courts generally accord greater weight to contemporaneous management forecasts prepared in the ordinary course of business."
In the past year eight years, AM General has derived most of its revenue from the manufacturing and sale of the Humvee to the United States military.
In light of the changing landscape, AM General has aggressively pursued other near-term sources of revenue, including the sale of military vehicles to foreign governments and the development of a commercial vehicle assembly business. In the long-term, AM General is currently a strong contender to procure the contract to produce the next generation light tactical vehicle for the U.S. military.
Predicting AM General's future cash flows under the present circumstances is arguably similar to forecasting a start-up company's future cash flows.
When viewed from that perspective, AMG's reliance on management's cash flow projections seems reasonable, especially where, as here, the forecasts were made in the ordinary course of AM General's business. AMG also observed that AM General has "significant international production opportunities" for direct sales [redacted.data]—to name a few countries.
In the December determination, AMG relied upon AM General's management's projection of roughly [redacted.data] billion in revenue in 2013—[redacted.data] million of which was expected to be revenue from Humvee sales. Without any definitive purchase orders, AMG's forecast was presumably based on AM General's expectation that it would both (1) receive a substantial amount of foreign vehicle orders and (2) be able to fulfill those orders in 2013.
Renco points out that even if the [redacted.data] order materializes—which is still uncertain
Without being skewed improperly by hindsight bias (i.e., the sharp revision downward in 2013 Humvee sales), the question remains whether AMG unreasonably relied on management's forecast in the December determination? That question turns in part on the reasonableness of AM General's foreign sales expectation. Except for [redacted.data] letter of request, however, neither party has provided any contemporaneous indication of the likelihood that those future sales opportunities would occur. Without more, and given AM General's management's proven track record and the deference afforded to management's projections made in the ordinary course of business, Renco has not set forth a reasonable probability that AMG was unreasonable in relying on management's projections in the December determination.
With respect to AM General's servicing business, AMG forecasted revenues of [redacted.data] million in the December determination and [redacted.data] million in the February determination.
Renco also complains that AMG calculated the December DCF valuation based on a single year of projected cash flows. Renco argues that the forecasting of only a single year of cash flows is per se unreasonable. AMG contends that it reasonably relied on AM General's model which also utilized a single year of projected cash flows. While a "five-year period typically is used, . . . a shorter or longer period may be adopted if it would produce a more accurate valuation."
Renco also takes issue with the 11.5x EBITDA multiple relied upon in the December determination and the 12.5x EBITDA multiple used in the February determination. Those multiples were based on a single comparable transaction— the acquisition of Force Protection for $360 million by General Dynamics Corp. in December 2011—which represented a multiple of 11.9x the last twelve months ("LTM") EBITDA. Renco criticizes AMG's use of a single comparable transaction. It also asserts that the EBITDA multiples used were unreasonable because: (1) market professionals actually valued the transaction at a multiple of 4x to 4.9x of estimated EBITDA;
"The comparable acquisition approach is a valuation methodology in which a company's potential sale price is derived by identifying similar transactions."
The use of a single transaction in the comparable acquisition approach is not per se unreasonable. With respect to cases where only a single comparable transaction was used, the Court's decisions were driven in part because the company or market circumstances were dissimilar from the subject company or the market conditions of the subject transaction.
While Renco has created some doubt as to whether other EBIDTA multiples would have been more appropriate, those multiples do not necessarily show that the multiples AMG used were unreasonable.
Renco further criticizes the February determination by arguing that AMG assigned a much greater value to AM General's commercial assembly business than is justified. In the February determination, AMG valued the commercial assembly business at [redacted.data] million, roughly [redacted.data] percent of AM General's enterprise value.
While the evidence presented by Renco raises questions about the reliability of these projections, management's anticipation of future growth for this business cannot be entirely discounted. However, given that AM General's commercial vehicle business lacks a proven record of success, AMG's reliance on these projections may be unreasonable. Moreover, AMG has not presented any evidence to bolster the reliability of these projections. Thus, the factual record does not support that AMG was reasonable in relying on management's projections in this regard.
In sum, Renco has undermined the reasonableness of portions of AMG's determinations. However, Renco's criticisms do not demonstrate that AMG failed to make a reasonable determination. If Renco has carried its burden to show a reasonable probability of success on its reasonable determination claim, it has done so only by the slimmest of margins. The better inference, however, from the record is that it has fallen just short of satisfying that standard. Nevertheless, Renco has shown that AMG's blind reliance on management's projections may not be warranted in the future. Having made two questionable determinations, there is a reasonable probability that AMG will continue to do so in the future. Because Renco may not be notified of any future distribution to AMG, it has little protection against its Revalued Capital Account reaching the 80 percent threshold. Accordingly, Renco may be entitled to some injunctive relief that would guard against this risk. D. Will Renco Suffer Irreparable Harm?
To satisfy the irreparable harm requirement, Renco must demonstrate that it will suffer imminent irreparable harm if an injunction is not issued.
Renco has not established that the Holdco Agreement prohibits future distributions when the appraisal process is invoked. Moreover, Renco has not shown with any degree of certainty that its Revalued Capital Account is in danger of exceeding the 80 percent threshold. At best, the only harm that Renco might suffer from an "unreasonable" determination is a temporary delay in having a reasonable estimate of the Revalued Capital Accounts. That is hardly the type of harm that warrants injunctive relief. With consideration of AMG's contractual waiver of its objections to the irreparable harm requirement, the Court concludes that Renco has satisfied this burden, if only barely.
Finally, Renco must show that the harm it will suffer if the injunction is denied will exceed the harm to AMG if the injunction is issued.
With respect to its claim that invoking the appraisal procedure stays all future distributions, Renco has not established that it is entitled to judgment on the merits or that there is a reasonable probability that it would be successful. Renco has not quite established a reasonable probability that AMG did not make "reasonable" determinations in December and February. Moreover, the harm Renco will suffer and the balance of the equities do not warrant granting Renco the relief it requests.
On the other hand, the relative ease with which AMG could manipulate future distributions in its favor
Accordingly, the Court will grant an interim injunction requiring AMG to provide Renco a summary of its determination of the Revalued Capital Accounts fifteen calendar days before making any distributions. Fifteen days should give Renco enough time to challenge the reasonableness of AMG's determination and to seek appropriate relief before a distribution is made. If Renco is able to show recently caused AM General to withhold from Renco a monthly business review report it had customarily received. See Letter to the Court from Kevin G. Abrams, Esq., dated May 23, 2013. that there is a reasonable probability that (1) AMG made an unreasonable determination and (2) Renco's Revalued Capital Account is near the 80 percent threshold,
For the foregoing reasons, Renco has demonstrated that it is entitled to a limited injunction, pending completion of the appraisal process, requiring that AMG provide a summary of its determination of the Revalued Capital Accounts to Renco at least fifteen calendar days before making any distribution. An implementing order will be entered.