Peekay: Bigger Losses As Chain Plans Offering

Peekay Boutiques, Inc. has registered with the SEC to sell shares to the public in an effort to reduce the enormous debt that has been a prominent factor in the company’s recurring losses. The filing in early May was in a preliminary form, with the share price and several other key figures and names left blank. And as of May 15 no underwriter had been found to handle the offering.

Meanwhile Peekay reported a loss of $4.2 million for 2014 (compared to a loss of $2.6 million in 2013), as well as a loss of $486,272 for the quarter ended March 31st (compared with a loss of $88,593 for the same quarter in 2014).

With over $50 million in outstanding loans, Peekay’s annual “interest expense” totaled $6.7 million in each of the last two years, a major contributor to its losses.

Over the past three years, investors used borrowed money to assemble the collection of 48 stores which specialize in sexual wellness products and lingerie — then took the company public in February, 2015.

Two of the company loans, totaling $38.2, million come due on December 27, 2015. And while the company has received extensions in the past from its bankers, it notes in its latest filing, “we do not have the resources necessary to pay this debt as it comes due. Our ability to continue our operations and execute our business plan is dependent on our ability to refinance this debt and/or to raise sufficient capital to pay this debt and other obligations as they come due (or are extended through a refinancing) and to provide sufficient capital to operate our business as contemplated.”

In recent days, BODY has asked company executives and its attorney if Peekay has finally found an underwriter for its crucial stock offering. As we went to press we had not received a response from the company and its attorney, Louis A. Bevilacqua, said he could supply “no comment” to questions about an underwriter or the offering itself.

Clearly the success of the potential offering will be a key factor in the future of Peekay. In addition to the matter of its outstanding loans and their impact on the company’s bottom line, Peekay had announced, in an SEC filing several months ago, an aggressive plan to expand “at a rate of 8-15 stores per year, resulting in 114 stores by the end of 2019.” But the store openings have a cost. In 2014 “the average investment required to open a typical new store was approximately $250,000,” Peekay explained. “Our continued expansion places increased demands on our financial, managerial, operational, supply-chain and administrative resources.” In its most recent filings, Peekay did not repeat its intention to open a sizable number of stores this year. It opened six stores in 2014, but just one so far this year.

Absent a successful stock offering, the most recent Peekay filing noted, “If we are unable to refinance our existing senior debt or raise equity capital we may have to cease operations and liquidate our assets and the holders of our equity may lose all or a significant portion of the value of their equity.”