In order to find the endeavor value and recovery rates for each category of creditors implied by the April 2009 attempted exchange offer. we foremost had to find the precedence degrees of the capital construction. We used Exhibit 7 in the Case papers to find the precedence degrees of each category. The top precedence category included the SFTP Revolver and Term Loan; the 2nd precedence category included the SFO Notes; and the 3rd precedence category included the SFI 2010. 2013. 2014. and converible notes; The lowest precedence was the PIERS preffered equity followed by common equity. We so took the implied endeavor value of the exchange offer of $1.7 billion and started administering the value between the debt holders. get downing at the most senior tranche of the capital construction. With the most senior category holding an entire claim of $1.1 Bn ( less than the EV of $1.7 Bn ). their several recovery rate was 100%.
Similarly. the 2nd class’s claim of $420 Mn ( with a cumulative claim including first and 2nd categories of $1.53 Bn ). had a recovery rate of 100%. We worked down the categories until we reached the breakpoint between SFO Notes and the SFI Notes. Everything above this breakpoint would hold a 100% recovery. and so per the inside informations of the exchange offer. we split the equity staying among the SFI Notes. Pier and the Common Stock ( 85%, 10% and 5% severally ). This resulted in a recovery rate of 16.6% for the SFI Notes. and 5.5% for the PIERS. The Enterprise Value for the SFI Notes is $144.5 million. for the PIERS category $17.0 Mn and the common equity is $8.5 Mn. See Exhibit 1 in the Appendix for extra inside informations.
Adding the value of the Six Flag’s Short Term and Long Term debt to its market cap. and so subtracting the hard currency at manus. we are able to detect an Enterprise Value of $2.7 Bn in 2006 and $2.4 Bn in 2007. This is higher than the 2009 implied value of $1.7 Bn. Similarly. the market cap of Six flags is much higher in 2006 and 2007 than 2009. Part of the ground that the value of Six Flags decreased from 2006 and 2007 to that of 2009 was due to the planetary fiscal crisis. which resulted in a diminution in client visits and spend. In add-on to this. the swine grippe virus eruption compounded with troubles in accessing planetary capital markets. made it really hard for Six Flags to do payments for its $2.7 Bn of debt. With this is head. the market anticipated that bankruptcy might be at hand and hence Six Flag’s stock monetary value declined significantly. Furthermore. with capital markets in hurt. the company suffered from debt overhang as equityholders likely were non willing to shoot more equity into the company.
In order to find the endeavor value and recovery rates for each category of creditors implied by direction program and the SFO program. we foremost had to find the precedence degrees of the capital construction. We used Exhibit 7 and 10 in the Case paperss to find the precedence degrees of each category. We used the information provided in Exhibit 10 in the Case paperss to find the appropriate claim values for each category of capital. Management program – For the SFTP value. we calculated the claim value as the Enterprise Value minus the $600 Mn term loan. multiplied by 92%. and so added the $600 Mn value. making a entire value of $1.198 Mn. For SFO’s claim value. we deducted $600 Mn from the EV and multiplied that by 7%. making a value of $45.5 Mn. Similarly for the SFI notes. we multiplied by 1% and reached a value of $6.5 Mn. Based on these values. we derived the recovery rates for each category. The breakpoint was between the SFTP category and SFO category. where the recovery rate for SFO was merely 10.8%.
Per the instance the SFI category received 1% of the equity ensuing in a recovery rate of 0.7%. The preferable and common stockholders received nil under this program. Extra inside informations can be found in Exhibit 2 in the Appendix. SFO recovery program –the implied endeavor value under this program was $1.47 Bn. For the SFTP value. the instance stated that they were repaid in full. so their recovery rate is 100% and the endeavor value for that category was $1.147 Bn ( Consisting of $680 Mn term loan. $450 Mn rights offering. and $17 Mn drawdown on six-gun ). Given that the $450 Mn rights offering constituted 69.8% of implied equity value. we obtained an equity value of $644.7 for the company. The SFO notes would have 22. 9 % of that which is tantamount to $147.6 Mn endeavor value and a 35.2% recovery rate. while the SFI notes would have 7.3% of that which is tantamount to $47. 1 Mn endeavor value and a 5.4% recovery rate. See the Appendix for inside informations on the SFO recovery program premises and consequences.
To develop a rating of the company. we did two attacks: DCF and Multiples. The first was a DCF analysis with a WACC price reduction rate of 11.06%. with an estimated Enterprise Value ( including NOL’s ) of about US $2.8 Bn. We calculated WACC by utilizing an Asset Beta of 1.06 ( beginning: Yokel! Finance for Entertainment Industry ) and deducing the Levered Beta utilizing a debt degree of $830 Mn and equity value of $644 Mn. Based on this. we calculated Re. Rd ( derived from involvement expense/level of debt ). and WACC. Then. we assumed a 3% growing rate to acquire a Terminal Value of $3.010. To cipher FCF. we deducted CapEx and Cash Taxes from EBITDA ( besides assumed that working capital alterations either equal to 0 or reflected in hard currency operating disbursals ). Finally we added the $ 1. 3 Bn of NOLs multiplied by fringy revenue enhancement rate of 35% to the endeavor value to obtain $2.8 Bn For multiples computation. we calculated the 2009 EV/Revenue multiple of Cedar Fair. which was 2.45x and multiplied it by the 2009 projected grosss of Six Flags and added the NOLs value.
Given all the four possible options for H Partners ( as outlined at the terminal of the instance ) . we would urge to take part in the SFO rights offering. Such offering provides the most upside to H Partners. given that they would have an extra 70 % of the company; they would purchase these rights with an implied endeavor and equity value of the company of $1.4 Bn and $0.64 Bn severally. merely to watch them appreciate significantly to their intrisinc value that we calculated of $2.8 Bn and $2.04. Thus their equity investing would about treble in value. Option 3. traveling down the ladder towards a more junior class. would set H Partners in a much greater hazard because presently harmonizing to the program they would acquire the least pro forma equity and even further they can acquire diluted by a direction inducement program. Furthermore. Option 4 to take part after Bankruptcy would likely merely offer H Partners much less possible given that major hazards have been mitigated and Six Flags has gone through the reorganisation procedure and managed to emerge from Chapter 11. We recommend H Partners to take part in the SFO offering.
The Bloody Cisco Santa Claus Christmas Caper
On this day, eighty-three years ago, a drama worthy of a Hollywood movie was playing out on the bustling streets of Cisco. While shoppers were rushing to finish up their Christmas shopping, four criminals were preparing to do some shopping of their own at the First National Bank.
The Great Santa Claus Bank Robbery, as it came to be known, occurred on December 23, 1927. After the gun smoke cleared, six people were dead, eight others wounded, two little girls and a young man had been kidnapped, and two bloody gun battles had been fought, launching the largest manhunt in Texas history. As an epilogue, one man was sent to the electric chair and another lynched. In nearby Wichita Falls, three of its citizens, including a doctor, had been arrested and an unsolved mystery persisted for decades.
Cisco is located in Eastland County, about 30 miles north of Cross Plains, so Howard was well aware of the robbery and its aftermath. Here, he comments on the events in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft dated July 13, 1932.
When we went to the town, we found the countryside in an uproar; for while we lay drunk, the “Santa Claus” gang that had looted Southwestern banks for more than a year, had swept into Cisco, 35 miles away and in an attempt to rob the main bank, had raved into a wholesale gun-battle that strewed the streets with dead and wounded. Two or three of them had gotten away into the brush and posses were beating the hills for them. To invitations to join the man-hunt, my friends and I laughed hollowly; we were in no shape to even lift a gun to our shoulders, much less confront a band of desperate outlaws.
Gad, the country buzzed like so many bees! The authorities sent south for the great Ranger captain Tom Hickman, and Gonzaullas — “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas — “Trigger Finger” Gonzaullas — “Quick Action” Gonzaullas — hero of more touch-and-go gun-fights than I know, and already almost a mythical figure in the Southwest. But they were not needed; the fugitives staggered in and gave themselves up — haggard shapes in torn and muddy garments, caked with blood from bullet-wounds. It was the end of the last great robber-gang of Texas. Let me see; it was three — no, four years ago. It doesn’t seem that long. All the Southwest rang with the news. Their names were on all men’s tongues. Now I doubt not they are completely forgotten, except by the kin of the men they slew, except by the men who carry the scars of their bullets. Helms, the leader, went to the chair, roaring and cursing blasphemies, fighting against his doom so terribly that the onlookers stood appalled. Hill, the boy whose life was twisted and ruined in his boyhood when a ghastly blunder consigned him to a reformatory instead of the orphanage to which he should have been sent — he is serving a life sentence in the penitentiary, after an escape and a recapture. Blackie, the sardonic jester, dying with a rifle-bullet through him, gasped the names of respectable business men of Wichita Falls as his pals and accomplices, for a last grim jest. Ratcliff, who entered the bank clad in a Santa Claus robe and whiskers to avoid suspicion, feigned madness, killed his jailer, was shot down as he sought to escape by the jailer’s daughter, and that night a mob tore him, wounded as he was, from his bunk, and strung him up to a near-by tree, to sway in the shrieking blizzard. Eh — life is a strange fierce thing.
In late December 1927, four men were holed up in a boarding house on the eastside of Wichita Falls. Three of the men were hardened criminals, led by Wichitan Henry Helms, a hot-tempered man known for making even his own cronies obey him at gunpoint. He had been released from prison just a few months earlier for robbing the City Bakery. Two of the others had drifted into town several weeks earlier. Marshall Ratliff and Robert Hill had become buddies with Helms in the prison at Huntsville. The fourth man rounding out the team was Lewis Davis, Helms’ brother-in-law. A newcomer to crime, Davis was a glass worker who lived in a modest home with his wife and two children.
The men planned to rob a bank in Cisco, a town familiar to Ratliff because his mother ran a cafe there. Of the four, Ratliff was the only man who could be recognized, so he decided to use Christmas as his cover. He persuaded Josephine Herron, the woman who owned the boarding house, to make him a disguise — a Santa Claus suit.
Cisco is more than 100 miles from Wichita Falls, so the gang stole a blue Buick sedan for the trip and took off on December 22nd, stopping for the night in Moran where Davis’ sister lived – it was just a short drive to Cisco the next morning.
During this period of time, three or four Texas banks a day were being robbed, and in response, the Texas Bankers Association had offered a $5,000 reward to anyone shooting a bank robber during the crime. It was partly this reward that turned a simple bank robbery into a deadly crime.
It was around noon when, amidst the busy shoppers, children spotted Santa walking down Main Street and ran to greet him. He smiled, patted their heads and asked them what they wanted for Christmas.
In all the excitement, no one saw a blue Buick pull into the alley beside the First National Bank. Santa walked into the bank and as customers and employees greeted him, his demeanor suddenly changed, and before you could say “sugarplum fairy,” robbers with guns burst into the bank.
“Hands up!” yelled one of the robbers.
Ratliff quickly grabbed money from the tellers, stuffing it into his Santa sack, and forced one to open the vault. At her young daughter’s insistence to see Santa, Mrs. B. P. Blassengame entered the bank while the holdup was in progress. Mrs. Blassengame, quickly reacted to the danger and led her daughter out another door, despite warnings from the robbers that they would shoot. She ran into the alley and screamed for help, alerting Chief of Police Bit Bedford and most of the citizenry about the robbery. Seeing how the police station was only a block away, the Chief and Deputy George Carmichael soon arrived on the scene.
Several minutes later, Ratliff had filled his sack with money and came out of the vault. Spotting someone outside the bank, Hill fired a shot through the window, and a shot was returned. Hill fired several more shots into the ceiling to show that they were armed. A fusillade of gunfire began, as many armed citizens, spurred on by the $5,000 reward, were now outside the bank. The cornered robbers forced all of the people in the bank out the door and towards their car, using them as human shields. Later, a count of bullet holes in the bank revealed over 200 bullets had hit the building.
A few of the hostages were wounded as they emerged into the alley, including Alex Spears, the bank president. While most of the customers escaped, two small girls, Laverne Comer and Emma May Robertson, were taken as hostages.
In the ensuing shootout in the alley, as the robbers tried to get to their car, Chief Bedford and Deputy Carmichael were mortally wounded — Bedford died several hours later, while Carmichael held on until January 17. Ratliff and Davis were also wounded in the shootout, Davis severely.
Despite their pre-planning, the robbers managed to pick a bank located less than a block from the police station and they had also failed to gas up their stolen getaway car. On the outskirts of town, the gang saw the Buick’s gas gauge needle had dropped to near empty.
They flagged down a passing Oldsmobile, and while exchanging gunfire with their pursuers, they transferred their loot and hostages to it. But a problem arose when the driver of car — a 14-year-old boy — took the keys and fled. So they piled back into the Buick, hoping the remaining fuel would be enough to get them down the road to safety.
A few moments later the lawmen and townspeople arrived and discovered the bandits had left behind the grievously wounded novice of the gang, Lewis Davis. He was riddled with bullets and died a few hours later. They left something else, too — in their haste, the robbers had left their loot. A sack containing more than $12,000 in cash and $150,000 in non-negotiable securities was found in the Oldsmobile. It was shaping up to be a disasterous day for the bandits.
The Buick was found abandoned a short distance away. Inside, the posse found the two frightened, but unharmed little girls. The robbers were now making their escape on foot. After an uncomfortable night hiding in the dense woods and thick underbrush, the gang stole another car and managed to evade the search parties for a while, until they wrecked the car near Putnam. They quickly carjacked a vehicle driven by Carl Wylie, forcing him to drive and taking him hostage for twenty-four hours; the gang then released him and let him have his car back. The desperate men stole yet another car and continued their getaway. The three men were in bad shape due to fatigue, lack of food and the icy, sleeting conditions.
There were now a number of posses combing the countryside for the men. The searchers knew that at least one of the robbers was wounded after coming across a trail of bloody discarded bandages. But their quarry was elusive, leaving a zigzag path of stolen cars and sightings.
Eventually, the threesome was ambushed by Sheriff Foster of Young County at South Bend as they tried to cross the Brazos River. Another car chase followed, with a shootout in an oil field as the three tried to make their escape. Cy Bradford, a future Texas Ranger, was involved in the firefight, and purportedly shot all three men. Ratliff was hit and fell to the ground with six bullets lodged in his body. When they searched him, they discovered no less than six pistols on his person – clearly Ratliff was ready to go out in a blaze of glory and gunfire.
Though wounded, Helms and Hill, managed to escape into the woods surrounding the winding Brazos River, which offered ideal concealment. The posse, directed by Ranger Captain Tom Hickman pressed on, allowing the wounded men no opportunity for rest. His sergeant, Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas, went up in an airplane as a spotter, participating in the first aerial search for criminals in Texas history. However, Gonzaullas was unable to spot the fleeing men. But their trail indicated the men were tiring of the chase – close set footprints showed the men were weakening from loss of blood.
Helms and Hill were finally captured on December 30th, seven days after the bank robbery. The pair was looking for a rooming house in Graham, but the man they asked for directions saw their pistols and notified the authorities. The wounded and starving men gave up without a fight, no doubt thankful their ordeal had come to an end. When apprehended, the lawmen discovered Hill with three pistols and Helms with four. During their week on the run, the pair had made it only sixty-two miles from the bank they had robbed.
The greatest manhunt in Texas was over. During the last part of the manhunt, two more men had been wounded from accidental discharge of their weapons, bringing the total number of wounded to eight, excluding the three surviving robbers and the death toll stood at three.
Friends and relatives were rounded up when it was discovered they had assisted the Santa Claus bank robbers, among them a Wichita Falls doctor, Lewis Evan’s sister who lived in Moran, the boarding house landlady who made the Santa suit and one other woman.
The three men recovered from their wounds and were soon put on trail. Hill took the stand on his own behalf, plead guilty to armed robbery and in March was sentenced to 99 years in prison. But he didn’t take too well to prison life and escaped three times, being recaptured each time. After deciding to stay put, he was paroled in the mid-1940s, changed his name, and became a productive citizen.
Helms was identified as the one who had gunned down both lawmen and was given the death sentence in late February 1928. After an unsuccessful insanity plea, he was executed in “Old Sparky,” the electric chair in Huntsville, on September 6, 1929. Ratcliff was also convicted for his part in the robbery and shootings andsent to Death Row.
The day Helms was executed, Ratcliff appeared to have some sort of physical andmental breakdown. The ruse was very convincing, even fooling the Death Row guards, who were not easily fooled. In addition to acting erratic and insane, Ratcliff also feigned paralysis. After his appeal failed, Ratcliff’s mother filed for a lunacy hearing.
The local Eastland County judge, infuriated at the insanity plea, wanted the ball back in his court. He charged Ratliff with armed robbery related to the theft of the Oldsmobile on the day of the robbery. The Walker County judge was furious at being outmaneuvered by his Eastland County counterpart. Thus, even after being convicted and sentenced to 99 years for the bank robbery andthe death penalty for the killing of the two Cisco peace officers, Ratliff was extradited from the Huntsville penitentiary to the Eastland County jail.
Once at the jail, Ratliff convinced his jailers, Pack Kilbourn and Tom Jones, that he really was insane and paralyzed, to the point they had to feed him, bathe him, andtake him to the toilet. Needless to say, this did not go over too well with the citizens of Eastland County who were incensed that he had not been executed yet.
On November 18, a desperate Ratliff got his hands on a pistol and attempted to escape, mortally wounding jailer Jones in the process. The other jailer, Kilbourn, was somehow able to disarm and subdue Ratliff, beating him unconscious. Contrary to what Howard told Lovecraft in his letter, Ratliff was not shot by Kilborn’s daughter. She tried to shoot him when she thought he had shot her father, but her father convinced her he was not harmed by Ratliff and she held off pulling the trigger.
At this point, the townspeople had had enough, with well over a 1,000 of them gathered outside the jail chanting “we want Santa Claus, we want Santa Claus” and demanding that Ratliff be handed over to them. By now it was after sunset and the crowd pressed forward into the jail, overpowering Kilbourn and dragging a badly beaten Ratliff from his cell. Binding his hands and feet, the lynch mob carried the doomed bank robber to several nearby telephone poles and attempted to hang him with a rope thrown over a guy-wire strung between two poles.
Their first attempt failed when the knot came untied and he fell to the ground. Not missing a beat, the crowd made a second attempt, which was a success and Ratliff was pronounced dead at 9:55 pm on November 19, 1929. Jones, the wounded jailer, died later that evening. His was the last death attributed to the ill-fated Great Santa Claus Bank Robbery, bringing the total number of dead to six.
As an odd sidebar to the whole affair, when Cisco Police Chief Bedford lay dying from his wounds, he told astonished Wichita County Sheriff W.G. Brailey that a blonde woman had shot him. While some dismissed the dying man’s statement confused ramblings, the Sheriff became convinced during the course of his subsequent investigation that a woman had killed the Police Chief. There were reports a woman took part in other robberies the Helms’ gang committed and, based on a tip, the sheriff did find some of the gang’s loot buried on property belonging to Josephine Herron — the Santa suit seamstress. But the Sheriff was never able to prove a woman was a fifth robber or uncover her identity.
In spite of the gang’s usurping of Old St. Nicholas’ image for this dastardly deed, the jolly old fat man’s reputation was not permanently sullied and the children of Cisco and Texas quickly realized it was just a very bad man pretending to be Santa — a very bad man who came to a very bad end.
Huckleberry Finn: Realism Vs. Romanticism Sample
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. written by Mark Twain. chiefly takes topographic point on the Mississippi River. as Huck and Jim prosecute their freedom. They persevere through many obstructions and learn life lessons along the manner. Twain uses these characters to picture the significance of friendly relationship over society’s moral construction. He demonstrates features of both Romanticism and Realism in his novel to show his thoughts of that clip period. Romanticism is based on the importance of feelings. imaginativeness and single creativeness. whilst Realism is intended to portray the lives of the common adult male. the ethical battles and societal issues of real-life state of affairss. Huckleberry Finn is basically a Realistic novel because of Twain’s careful item in the descriptions of the scene and characters. He does this to do it every bit near as possible to the existent milieus and events of the clip period. Throughout his novel. Twain uses Romanticism chiefly within the character. Tom Sawyer. Sawyer is an adventuresome romantic that comes up with all kinds of programs and thoughts. chiefly from books that he’s read. Tom finds inspiration in these myths. and conveys them into his ain elaborate strategies.
When Tom and Huck are seeking to deliver Jim. Huck proposes a program. but is rejected by Tom: “Work? Why. cert’nly it would work. like rats a-fighting. But it’s excessively blame’ simple ; there ain’t nil to it. What’s the good of a program that ain’t no more problem than that? ” ( 327 ) . Couple shows how Tom drags everything out. merely to do it more fun or adventuresome. while Huck merely wants to acquire the occupation done. As the novel progresses. Huck learns that feelings triumph over ground and the beliefs of society. Towards the terminal of the book. Huck is faced with a hard determination. He is torn by his friendly relationship for Jim and the belief that assisting a runaway slave is a wickedness. He decides to compose a missive to Miss Watson. explicating where Jim is. but isn’t satisfied: “All right. so. I’ll go to hell” ( 304 ) . Although Huck believes that it’s a wickedness to assist a runaway slave. he puts his feelings for Jim foremost. and decides that he’ll do anything to assist him. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain shows Realism in many facets of his authorship ; the description of the scene and characters. and how the characters communicate.
He reveals how Huck’s moral struggle with those of the society around him. Twain satirizes this society. and mocks the lip service of people involved in Romanticism. He besides illustrates how Huck forms moral beliefs during a hard clip of his life. Twain chiefly displays realistic qualities throughout his novel. by utilizing assorted elements such as the characters’ idiom and how their address is written. He realistically uses these idioms in grammar and word pick. and besides in the characters that display them. Less educated characters like Jim speak utilizing slang: “Say. who is you? Whar is you? Chase my cats ef I didn’ hear sumf’n. Well. I know what I’s gwyne to make: I’s gwyne to put down here and listen Tell I hears it ag’in” ( 5 ) . Twain uses proper idiom to suit the character. clip period and location to stress that this novel is genuinely that of a Realistic 1. As the novel progresses. Twain utilizes the thought of the Romantic Hero while utilizing sarcasm to mock Tom Sawyer. turn outing farther that Huckleberry Finn is chiefly a Realistic novel.
When seeking to deliver Jim. Huck believes that they should take the more efficient way. but Tom responds: “Well. hain’t you of all time read any books at all? – Baron Trenck. nor Casanora. nor Benvenuto Chelleeny. nor Henri IV. nor none of them heroes? ” ( 335 ) . Tom devises a complicated program that is so hard to carry through. that even he gives up on certain parts. and simply pretends that he is making them. Even worse. Jim finally gets out of prison and ends up assisting Tom make the readyings for his ain flight. Furthermore. he connects with the reader by supplying illustrations of issues that occur in real-life state of affairss. Twain besides satirizes faith. and the manner that people seem to surpass themselves in public. but disregard those spiritual values when they aren’t good to them. In the novel. the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. two equaling households. supply a necessary illustration of this spiritual lip service.
When these households go to church. “the work forces took their guns along. and kept them between their articulatio genuss or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same” ( 109 ) . Although the households are in church. they still don’t trust each other. Besides. after holding that the discourse on brotherlike love was a good 1. the two households go out and go on contending each other. In the beginning of the novel. Pap tries to forestall Huck from traveling to school. because he feels as if Huck is seeking to be better than him. While Pap. being a romantic. misgivings advancement. Huck seems to look towards advancement. even though he does this merely to hurt Pap. Nevertheless. Huck continues to travel to school: “He catched me a twosome of times and trashed me. but I went to school merely the same. and dodged him or outrun him most of the time” ( 33 ) . Because of Huck’s carelessness. Pap hunts him down. and subjects Huck with regular whippings.
Couple demonstrates how Huck matures throughout the book. and how his character alterations. In the beginning. Huck believes that slaves are inferior. but grows fond of Jim. and changes his thought to that of a existent human being ; caring and compassionate. He stops playing degrading fast ones on Jim. and treats him with more regard. Besides. when Huck begins to experience guilty about liberating Jim. he decides against returning Jim. Through this. Huck shows that he is willing to withstand God to make what he feels is right. Huck transforms from being a trouble maker that idolizes Tom Sawyer. to a male child that can believe for himself. and understand the difference between right and incorrect.