Bankruptcy Watch Update: SIMAD Holdings Camp Auction Results and What the Sale Prices Reveal
- Arun Singh
- 5 days ago
- 14 min read
SIMAD Holdings Bankruptcy Filing Overview
The sale process is now substantially complete. On August 10, 2026, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey approved the sale of more than two dozen camp properties. Bloomberg Law put the liquidation haul at $440 million as of early August, consisting of $368 million in winning bids across the auctioned camps plus earlier private sales. Law360 subsequently reported approximately $448.8 million in consideration approved at the sale hearing.
The results are worth recording carefully, because they answer a question the original filing left open. The camps were not the problem.
Three camps, Willow Lake, Camp Kiwi and Chateaugay, were held out of the auction, reportedly in part because of litigation affecting them. The process itself was run by Assaf Ravid, the restructuring officer to whom the Shabsels brothers ceded control. It moved quickly for a practical reason. Deposits for the summer of 2027 were coming due, and operators and parents pressed for resolution before families had to decide whether to enroll.
The auction produced $368.3 million across the camp properties offered, roughly 7 percent above the values assigned by appraisal firm Leitner Berman in 2025, according to a filing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Four additional properties, Pine Forest Camp, Camp Achim, Camp Mesorah and Camp Chen-A-Wanda, sold through private transactions for a combined $71.7 million. Camp Mohawk in White Plains, New York, sold for approximately $120.8 million to FitzWalter Capital Partners, well above the $68 million stalking-horse bid submitted by Grandview Ventures Group, an investment group associated with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose reported final bid was $80 million.
Case Snapshot
SIMAD Holdings Ltd. and 60 affiliated debtors, Case No. 26-16388 (Bankr. D.N.J.), before Chief Judge Christine M. Gravelle
Approximately 30 camp properties at filing; 23 camps taken to auction with all but Camp Lavi reported as sold, four sold privately, and three held out of the process
Auction proceeds of $368.3 million and private sales of $71.7 million, a combined $440.0 million reported by Bloomberg Law; total consideration approved at the sale hearing reported by Law360 at approximately $448.8 million
More than 100 prospective bidders executed non-disclosure agreements; bidding ran five days across multiple rounds
Debtors represented by Cole Schotz P.C.; sale process supported by the declarations of investment banker J. Scott Victor
Series A bond claim of approximately $214 million held through Mishmeret Trust, secured by 16 camps that produced approximately $336.3 million in combined auction and private-sale proceeds
Bloomberg Law reports nearly $600 million in loans across the enterprise alongside the $214 million of bonded debt, and more than $230 million in merchant cash advance funding
Approximately $180 million in DIP financing tied to the Israeli bondholders, of which roughly $60 million was new money and $120 million a roll-up of prepetition bond debt, plus approximately $30 million from Bank of New Hampshire; the court overruled objections to the financing, reported by Bloomberg Law as $70 million in new money
What the Auction Results Actually Establish
The camps cleared their 2025 appraised values. That is an unusual outcome in a distressed sale conducted under compressed timelines, and it narrows the range of plausible explanations for the collapse considerably.
A bankruptcy sale is not a fair-value exercise. Buyers price in the estate's urgency, the seasonal deadline, the litigation overhang, and the absence of ordinary representations and warranties. When assets sold under those conditions still exceed independent appraisal, the shortfall that forced the filing was not located in the operating assets.
It was located in the capital structure and in the governance of cash. SIMAD reported 2025 revenue of $165.4 million, operating profit of $24.3 million, and consolidated EBITDA of $41.9 million, each an increase over 2024. The platform entered Chapter 11 with approximately $18.8 million in cash against an opening emergency budget requiring roughly $7.2 million in near-term disbursements. A business generating $165 million in annual revenue had almost no margin for a timing shock at precisely the moment its seasonal expenses accelerated.
The auction confirms what the operating results suggested. This was a financing failure attached to a functioning business.
Auction and Sale Results
Reported prices below are drawn from the debtors' successful-bidder filing and contemporaneous reporting. Headline consideration is not the same as cash available for distribution.
Property | Reported price | Reported purchaser / notes |
Mohawk Day Camp (White Plains, NY) | $120.8M | FitzWalter Capital Partners; outbid Grandview Ventures (associated with David Zaslav), reported final bid $80M |
Banner Day Camp | $30.0M | Auction |
Rolling Hills Country Day Camp | $28.5M | Auction |
Camp Mogen Avraham | $22.4M | Auction |
Camp Lokanda (Glen Spey, NY) | $19.33M | American Youth Camping Inc.; the Gabbay family, the existing operator, has said it is continuing |
Camp Echo (Burlingham, NY) | $17.0M | American Youth Camping Inc.; exceeded Ohel's reported $12M offer |
Blue Star Camps (NC) | $15.0M | Auction |
Country Roads Day Camp (Manalapan, NJ) | $14.5M | JCC of Greater Monmouth County |
Club Getaway | $13.3M | Auction |
Island Lake Camp | $13.0M | Auction |
Meadowbrook Country Day Camp | $12.3M | Auction |
Camp Wekeela | $9.9M | Auction |
Windsor Mountain Summer Camp | $8.5M | Auction |
Greenville Land / Malka | $8.2M | Auction |
Camp Green Lane (PA) | ~$8.0M | Existing operators reported as retaining the camp |
Camp North Star | $6.3M | Auction |
Indian Acres / Forest Acres | $6.0M | American Youth Camping Inc. |
Eagle's Landing Day Camp | $5.2M | Auction |
Summit Camp and Travel | $4.8M | Auction |
Camp Med-O-Lark | $2.3M | American Youth Camping Inc. |
New England Golf & Tennis Camp | $2.0M | Auction |
Camp Waukeela | $1.2M | American Youth Camping Inc. |
Camp Lavi (PA) | Pending | Sale unresolved following bidder withdrawal |
Private sales (4 properties) | $71.7M | Pine Forest Camp, Camp Achim, Camp Mesorah, Camp Chen-A-Wanda |
Willow Lake, Camp Kiwi, Chateaugay | Not offered | Held out of the auction, reportedly in part because of litigation affecting the camps |
Key Dates and Events
Date | Event |
Dec. 2025 | SIMAD Holdings Ltd. issues NIS 620 million of Series A debentures on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange |
May 31, 2026 | First scheduled bond interest payment missed; disputed ~$34 million related-party transfer disclosed |
June 4 and 5, 2026 | SIMAD Holdings and 60 affiliated debtors file Chapter 11 in the District of New Jersey (Case No. 26-16388); related DAMIS cases filed |
June 26, 2026 | Bankruptcy court enters order approving bidding procedures |
July 20, 2026 | Court approves the $7 million private sale of Camp Achim |
July 21 to 23, 2026 | SIMAD learns of, and discloses, two federal investigations |
July 27 to 31, 2026 | Auction runs five days across multiple rounds; more than 100 prospective bidders executed NDAs |
Aug. 4, 2026 | Debtors file notice identifying successful bidders for the camp properties |
Aug. 10, 2026 | Sale hearing at 11:00 a.m. ET before Chief Judge Gravelle; reported to have resulted in approval of the camp sales |
Aug. 24, 2026 | Hearing scheduled on the OrcaFunding receivables claim, together with adjourned matters including final cash collateral relief for the SBA, Bank of America, Putnam County Savings Bank, Mizzen Capital and One Canal Place, and final approval of Chateaugay postpetition financing from Community Bank |
Where the Proceeds Go
The secured stack is being repaid from the top down, and the distance between headline sale prices and unsecured recovery is substantial.
The Israeli bondholders are the clearest beneficiaries. Reporting identifies holders including More Investment House, Meitav and Migdal Capital Markets. Their bonds were secured by 16 camps that generated approximately $336.3 million through auction and private sale, against approximately $296.5 million in appraised value and roughly $214 million owed at the start of the case. On those figures, full repayment appears likely, though final recoveries remain subject to allocation among collateral pools, cure costs, closing adjustments, administrative expenses, and the resolution of competing lien claims.
American Youth Camping Inc. was the most active buyer in the auction, acquiring Camp Lokanda, Camp Echo, Camp Med-O-Lark, the Indian Acres and Forest Acres camps, and Camp Waukeela. Neither the bankruptcy filings nor the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange filings disclose the members behind that entity. Press reporting has associated it with principals of the hedge fund Rubric Capital and with Sam Drazin of Drazin Capital, which has not been confirmed in the court record.
The position of the merchant cash advance creditors is materially different, and materially less certain. The SIMAD camp debtors reported obligations exceeding $100 million to approximately 42 MCA and short-term funding providers. The affiliated DAMIS real estate debtors reported approximately $134 million more, placing reported exposure across the broader Shabsels enterprise above $230 million. Because many of those obligations carry cross-guarantees among SIMAD entities, DAMIS entities, non-debtor affiliates, and the Shabsels brothers personally, the face amounts will require reconciliation before allowed claims can be determined.
The debtors questioned whether the MCA providers held perfected interests in camp cash through deposit account control agreements. That distinction is the practical center of the dispute. An ACH authorization is a payment mechanism. It permits a funder to initiate a withdrawal from an operating account. It does not, by itself, establish control over that account for perfection purposes under Article 9, and it does not create priority over a bank, bond trustee, mortgage lender, or DIP lender holding a properly perfected senior interest. In bankruptcy, the ability to pull cash before the petition date and the right to be paid ahead of other creditors after it are separate questions.
Two further issues remain open. Sale proceeds must first satisfy transaction and closing expenses, contract cure payments, property-level secured debt, DIP claims, administrative expenses, taxes and professional fees, and junior secured debt before general unsecured claims are reached. And where consideration took the form of a credit bid, as with Camp Mesorah at approximately $5.6 million, the transaction cancels secured and DIP claims rather than delivering cash into the estate.
A strong auction improves the outlook for unsecured creditors. It does not by itself determine the recovery.
Reporting on the case has described the cash advance firms as scheduled among the unsecured creditors, which would place them behind the secured claims and imply a partial recovery funded by the strength of the sale. The funders themselves have taken a different position, asserting ownership of receivables rather than unsecured claims. That disagreement is the subject of the next phase of the case.
Camp Lavi and the Limits of a Court-Supervised Process
One property has not resolved, and the reason is instructive.
Ohel Children's Home and Family Services emerged as the winning bidder for Camp Lavi in Pennsylvania. A parent- and alumni-organized campaign, including a public petition, objected on the ground that a sale could end the camp in its existing form. Because Ohel serves the same community that sends children to the camp, the opposition carried reputational and donor consequences that a purely financial bidder would not face. Ohel reached a verbal agreement to pass the purchase to the runner-up, Shlomo Drazin of Rester Management. Before that arrangement could be documented, the runner-up declined to proceed on his original terms, and the sale was left unresolved. This sequence is drawn from reporting that relies on a source speaking on condition of anonymity, and the position may have changed at or after the August 10 hearing.
The court docket records the pressure directly. A Committee of Concerned Parents of Camp Lavi filed a formal objection to the proposed sale, and the court docketed separate batches of emails from concerned parties regarding Camp Lavi, Island Lake Camp and Mohawk Country Day School. Earlier in the case, parent emails concerning the Camp Echo process drew a written response from Chief Judge Gravelle, entered on the docket and considered at the sale hearing.
Nothing here suggests a defect in the sale process. The bidding procedures functioned as designed, and the court retained authority over the outcome. The point is narrower and more useful. A bankruptcy sale determines who holds title. It does not determine whether a buyer will absorb the reputational cost of holding it.
For assets with strong community identity, including camps, schools, houses of worship, community healthcare, and certain hospitality and cultural properties, constituency pressure is a real transaction variable, not a soft consideration. It affects which bidders qualify, whether they close, and how a backup bid performs when a first-position buyer withdraws. Estates disposing of assets of this kind should assume that the pool of buyers willing to complete a transaction under public scrutiny is smaller than the pool willing to bid.
Investigations Remain Outstanding
The asset sales resolve the disposition question. They do not resolve the conduct question.
SIMAD disclosed on July 23, 2026, that it had learned two days earlier of two federal investigations: a criminal grand jury inquiry through the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, reaching SIMAD, Michael and David Shabsels, and other companies the brothers own or control; and a separate civil investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York concerning alleged fraud involving COVID-era federal assistance, reported as relating to the Paycheck Protection Program. The Israel Securities Authority had previously opened a criminal investigation concerning the disputed transfer and possible securities-law violations. SIMAD has stated that it is cooperating.
No criminal charge, indictment, civil complaint, or finding of wrongdoing has been publicly announced. A grand jury investigation does not establish guilt, and a civil investigation does not establish liability.
For creditors, the investigations matter independent of their outcome. Document production may surface information about intercompany transfers, the use of bond and financing proceeds, owner-linked debts and guarantees, and assets moved outside the debtor estates, all of which the estate could use in avoidance or fiduciary duty actions. The estate has already flagged potential avoidance or fraudulent transfer claims tied to the approximately $34 million transfer, MCA preference exposure, double-pledge issues, and possible veil piercing or substantive consolidation theories involving DAMIS. Government repayment demands, forfeiture disputes, or penalties could equally delay or reduce distributions.
What the Objection Docket Shows
The agenda for the August 10 sale hearing is a useful record of where a portfolio disposition of this kind actually generates friction. The objections and reservations of rights fell into a small number of recurring categories.
Cure disputes. Contract counterparties, including Camp Counselors USA, Camp Specialists Ltd. and a vendor operating as Tavezio, objected to proposed cure amounts or to contracts omitted from the assumption and assignment schedules.
Minority equity positions. Minority interest holders in the Green Lane entities filed a reservation of rights addressing both the sale motion and the underlying cases.
Property-level secured and title claims. Congregation Tal Leyisroel objected in connection with the Greenvilleland and Malka entities, Bank of America filed a limited objection concerning Summit Camp and Travel, and a secured creditor reserved rights as to Island Lake Camp.
Constituency objections. Parent groups objected to the Camp Lavi sale and submitted correspondence regarding several other properties.
None of these is unusual in a section 363 process. What is instructive is where they clustered. The disputes did not concern valuation, and no party appears to have argued that the camps were being sold too cheaply. They concerned who held what interest in which entity, which contracts traveled with which asset, and what a buyer would be required to cure. In a platform assembled through nearly two decades of acquisitions, those questions are answered by the organizational documents, the intercompany arrangements, and the contract records at each entity, not by the sale process.
Estates with clean entity-level records resolve these questions quickly. Estates without them spend estate resources reconstructing them under a deadline.
Why the Entity Structure Matters
The camp-by-camp disposition worked because the assets were held in discrete entities. Separate LandCo and OperatingCo structures, individual camp entities, and property-level financing allowed the estate to run parallel sale tracks, price each asset against its own collateral pool, and match buyers to individual properties rather than forcing a single portfolio trade. More than twenty properties clearing in five days of bidding is a function of that structure.
The same fragmentation that made disposition efficient made oversight difficult while the platform was operating. Dozens of entities, overlapping guarantees, cross-collateralized positions, and ACH access held by roughly 42 short-term funders across multiple operating accounts produced a structure in which no single participant could see the consolidated obligation. Every MCA provider could reasonably conclude its own remittance was serviceable. Collectively, they were drawing against cash already committed to payroll, mortgage debt, bond service, and prepaid camper obligations.
Entity separateness is a disposition tool and a risk-isolation tool. It is not a substitute for cash governance. Where an operating platform holds assets across many entities, the controls that matter in practice are the ones governing who may pledge collateral, who may authorize transfers to affiliates, which accounts are subject to control agreements, and who has visibility into aggregate obligations across the enterprise. Independent oversight at the entity or holding-company level is generally designed to create a check on precisely the transactions that went unexamined here: related-party transfers, repeat pledges of the same collateral, and financings that draw against revenue already committed elsewhere. Such mechanisms do not prevent a bankruptcy filing, and they cannot guarantee that a distressed structure will hold. Their function is to create earlier visibility and earlier intervention points.
These elements do not eliminate market risk. But they preserve optionality, slow escalation, and create earlier intervention opportunities.
A Broader Pattern Operators and Lenders Should Note
The SIMAD outcome sharpens a point the original filing only suggested. Asset quality and enterprise survival are increasingly separate questions.
A portfolio that clears appraisal in a compressed distressed auction was never facing a demand problem or a valuation problem. It was facing a structure that could not withstand a single missed coupon and one season of cash disruption. The camps were sound enough that more than 100 bidders competed for them and several cleared their appraised values by wide margins. The platform that owned them still could not survive the timing mismatch between a seasonal cash cycle and a capital stack built from public bonds, regional bank debt, personal guarantees, and more than $230 million of short-term financing across affiliated groups.
For lenders and structured finance participants, the practical lesson concerns diligence scope rather than asset selection. Underwriting an operating platform against its own revenue tells you relatively little if the same revenue is supporting obligations at entities you cannot see. Traditional UCC searches may not disclose the full picture where filings are delayed, recorded under unfamiliar entity names, terminated in error, or silent as to current balances and cross-guarantees. Where prepaid customer revenue is involved, deposits appearing in an operating account may represent performance obligations rather than available cash, a distinction that materially changes what the account can safely support.
Final Thought:
When good assets sell above appraisal in a distressed auction, the failure was never in the assets. It was in the structure holding them.
Building Resilient Structures
At SPE Specialists, we follow cases like SIMAD Holdings through disposition because the outcomes reveal what the filings alone cannot. Thoughtful SPE structuring, independent oversight, disciplined control over related-party transactions, and clear visibility into aggregate obligations across affiliated entities can support earlier intervention when an operating platform's strength is no longer enough to offset a fragile capital stack.
Note on Sources and Case Status
This update was prepared on August 11, 2026, while the SIMAD Holdings cases remain active. Several points warrant qualification.
Sale approval and totals. The August 10, 2026 sale hearing was confirmed by the debtors' agenda filing (Docket No. 826). The reported approval of the sales and the approximately $448.8 million consideration figure are drawn from press reporting rather than from entered sale orders reviewed for this article. Bloomberg Law reported a $440 million liquidation total as of early August, and the difference between the two figures likely reflects sales approved or supplemented after that date. It has not been independently reconciled.
Property count. Reporting differs. The Real Deal describes 23 camps taken to auction with all but one selling, which yields 22 sales plus Camp Lavi unresolved. Bloomberg Law and eJewishPhilanthropy describe 23 as sold. The individually reported prices in the table above cover 22 line items and sum to approximately the reported $368.3 million total, which is consistent with 22 completed sales. Some sites host more than one camp, which may explain the discrepancy.
Buyer identities. Several purchasing entities are not identified in the bankruptcy or Tel Aviv Stock Exchange filings. Associations reported in the press have not been confirmed in the court record, and at least two individuals with the surname Drazin have been reported in connection with different aspects of the case.
Reported prices. Camp-level prices are drawn from the debtors' successful-bidder filings as reported in the press. They reflect headline consideration and have not been adjusted for cure costs, closing adjustments, credit-bid components, or allocation among collateral pools.
Financial detail from the case record. Petition-date cash, opening budget figures, DIP financing components, and merchant cash advance exposure at the SIMAD and DAMIS debtors are drawn from secondary summaries of court filings rather than from the underlying declarations and orders.
Camp Lavi and other unresolved matters. Reporting on the Camp Lavi bidder withdrawal relies in part on an anonymous source and remains subject to change. Cash collateral and postpetition financing matters were adjourned to August 24, 2026.
Recharacterization. The treatment of the merchant cash advance agreements has not been decided. The OrcaFunding matter was scheduled for August 24, 2026, and the decisions discussed above involve other debtors, other agreements, and in one instance a different jurisdiction. They are not binding on the outcome in these cases, and nothing here should be read as a prediction of how the court will rule.
Investigations. The federal and Israeli investigations described above are ongoing. No criminal charge, indictment, civil complaint, or finding of wrongdoing has been publicly announced as to SIMAD Holdings, Michael Shabsels, or David Shabsels. A grand jury investigation does not establish guilt, and a civil investigation does not establish liability.
This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client or advisory relationship. Bankruptcy outcomes are fact-specific, jurisdiction-specific, and dependent on the governing organizational and transaction documents. Readers evaluating a specific matter should consult qualified counsel and review the underlying court record, which is available through the claims agent.
Sources
SIMAD Holdings Ltd., Case No. 26-16388 (CMG) (Bankr. D.N.J.), Notice of Agenda of Matters Scheduled to be Heard on August 10, 2026 [Docket No. 826]
