CERAF - Parallel's Big Debt Problems Uncovered

The disgruntled investor lawsuit against Parallel cannabis initially hit the public records as a heavily redacted document . The Judge in the case apparently denied the redaction request and Green Market Report got a look at the complaint in all its glory or gory detail.

Notably, the actual debt amounts are spelled out along with other details that weren’t gleaned from the previous review. There are several issues alleged in this lawsuit and it is broken down as such:

• The SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) Investors claim their $25 million investment wasn’t supposed to be released until $50 million was raised. Their money was inappropriately taken from escrow
• Former CEO Beau Wrigley increased the company debt to $300 million
• Parallel reduced its revenue projections by 40% in a matter of months
• Parallel was in default on its debts but did not tell potential investors.
• The defaults were triggered by money owed to the former founder Jake Bergmann
• Green House debt was created inappropriately to pay Bergmann
• Wrigley was conflicted between issuing debt and making sure repayment terms were overly generous
• Investors allege that the Ceres SPAC Investment may have been a ruse all along to convince the SAFE investors to commit

SAFE Investors

The SAFE investors say they agreed to invest $25 million if another $25 million was raised bringing the total to $50 million. They say they wanted Wrigley to put up some money to have “skin in the game.” They say their money was in escrow and not to be released until the whole $50 million was raised, but that didn’t occur. They were also told that the investment would be a bridge funding until the SPAC deal was closed or alternative funding was accessed and that their money would likely be tied up until the second quarter of 2022. The money was released on September 27, 2021 even though the full $50 million wasn’t raised. The investors though found out that Wrigley didn’t put up his money after the fact and complained.

Wrigley is alleged to have then made up a shortfall of $10 million, but then had his own family fund called the PE Fund pay him back $3 million. The court filing says, “The Company had quietly used $3 million of the SAFE money to pay back part of Wrigley’s PE Fund Note, which means that while Wrigley was out soliciting “bridge” financing, he was actually taking $3 million out of the Company.”

Big Debt

One of the details that had been redacted in the original documents was the amount of debt at Parallel. The unredacted version states that Parallel had $300 million in debt. “By the end of June 2021, as discussed above, the Company had incurred more than $350 million in debt, a portion of which—the PE Fund Note—constituted an undisclosed default under $300 million of its Senior and Junior Note.”

• The Senior notes account for $165 million with 10% interest.
• The Junior notes are $145 million and are owned by the SAF Group in Canada. The company used the Junior Note to refinance seller financing provided by the sellers of New England Treatment Access (“NETA”). NETA is a cannabis facility that Parallel acquired in 2019. The Junior Note carries an annual non-default interest rate of 14.25%
• The company also appears to owe approximately $54 million on $44.3 million of certain convertible secured notes issued to Green Health. The Green Health Notes accrue interest at a rate of 16% per year, and carried a prepayment penalty of 25%

Rosy Revenue Projections

The investors also allege that in August 2021, Parallel projected 2022 revenue of $618 million. However, by January 2022 those revenue projections had dropped by 40% to $362 million. The company is privately owned and so actual revenue figures can’t be obtained.

Debt Defaults

The case alleges that by September 2021, Parallel “was on the precipice of (i) covenant and payment defaults on $145 million of recently issued junior debt, (ii) cross-defaults on $165 million of senior debt, and (iii) defaulting on a $13.5 million promissory note issued by Wrigley’s “family office,” Defendant PE Fund (PE Fund also held $91.2 million of the Company’s $165 million in senior debt); b. That as of September 27, 2021, the company also was already in payment default on approximately $44 million of notes issued by Defendant Green Health – a different Wrigley family office”

The complaint says that Parallel actually began defaulting on the debt as early as June 2021 because the company began issuing new debt to pay its other obligations. The investors say that their debt agreements specifically stated that Parallel couldn’t incur any more debt, but did so anyway. Essentially raising more money to pay off the previous debts due, which is why the complaint called Parallel a Ponzi scheme.

Bergmann Payments

Bergmann was the original founder of the company but he stepped down in 2018 when Wrigley became the CEO. The complaint says, “A dispute between Bergmann and the company arose over the value of Bergmann’s common stock. To resolve the dispute, and disregarding that Bergmann’s interests should have been junior to all of the company’s debt and Preferred Stock obligations described herein, the company entered into the Bergmann Settlement in or around January 2021.” Parallel (Surterra at the time) agreed to pay Bergmann $38.5 million and the first payment was to be $6 million. The second payment was to be $12.5 million and if Parallel couldn’t make that payment – it would rise to $13.5 million.

The investors say Parallel didn’t have the money and created more debt called the Green Health note to pay off Bergmann. The investors also say they were never told about the money owed Bergmann when they made their investment. Bergmann was paid $16 million in June 2021, but it didn’t come from Parallel – instead, it came from the Green Health debt which got money from the PE Fund.

Green Health Notes

Green Health is another Wrigley family office. The investors say the Green Health debt was created in order to pay off Bergmann and that was not allowed because the existing note holders agreed to lend money to Parallel if the company incurred no more debt. “The Company also appears to owe approximately $54 million on $44.3 million of certain convertible secured notes issued to Green Health. The Green Health Notes accrue interest at a rate of 16% per year, and carried a prepayment penalty of 25% (inclusive of all interest) had they been repaid before the May 1, 2021 maturity date.” Wrigley was CEO of Parallel and Green Health at the same time.

The Green Health Notes convert into preferred equity of Parallel to the tune of $135 million worth of preferred stock that would outrank one of the disgruntled investors – Techview’s Series D Preferred stock. So, the $44.5 million investment from Wrigley’s family office would turn into $135 million of stock.

“Remarkably, the fact that the Third and Fourth Amended Green Health Notes were executed as of May 7, 2021, with a past-due maturity date of May 1, 2021, means the notes were already in default upon execution. ”

Ceres Acquisition SPAC

Parallel was rumored to be going public as the qualifying transaction for the Ceres Acquisition SPAC (OTC: CERAF). However, the deal fell apart and was terminated. The valuation fell from $1.8 billion to $1 billion and the lawsuit alleges that Parallel’s poor performance as a company would have resulted in a loss of value in the public share. The investors also allege that maybe the SPAC deal was never intended to go forward and was just a marketing tool.

When the SPAC deal was terminated, Parallel spun the news as a positive story. The company alluded to more investors coming forward and that it had just received new private investor money, which was the SAFE money.

Parallel Crashes

The problems all came to a head according to the complaint when in November 2021, Wrigley resigned as CEO when the first default notices started going out. At the beginning of December, it became really clear to the investors just how bad the situation was. “During a Zoom call that day with Perella Weinberg Partners (“PWP”)—one of the company’s financial advisors in connection with the purported effort to sell the company—PWP disclosed that the year-end interest payment due on the $165 million in Senior Notes would not be paid, because the company would instead need to conserve precious cash for the sale process.”

The investors had been told their cash would last the company until at least the second quarter of 2022, but it may have already been used up by the fall of 2021. The investor’s group financial advisor Trip McCoy had eventually asked the current CEO James Whitcomb where the money went, “Whitcomb attempted to deflect the issue to PWP’s supposed mishandling of the situation, but also conceded that although “we still have most of that money today” “[t]he issue is we need to raise more, and the [newly appointed strategic advisory] committee is focused a lot on unwinding of some of Beau’s securities and redistribution of this equity back to the rest of the cap table.” Whitcomb further conceded in the same message exchange that “Beau and Jay have some explaining to do to you as I mentioned in our last call.”