With the country averaging 1000+ deaths a day and tens of thousands of new daily COVID infections, Kingswood got skittish: Was that the definitive end of the deal? No! The parties continued to discuss new deal parameters but then we, as a country, couldn’t get our sh*t in order. …on April 16, 2020, the Merger Agreement was terminated prior to closing because the COVID19 pandemic forced the Company to close all of its stores and the Company was unable to satisfy the minimum liquidity closing condition in the merger agreement. Take a look at this mind-boggling decline in YOY performance: Stein Mart, which had been on distressed watch lists around that time, seemed to be on the receiving end of a much-needed and wildly opportune lifeline. But then in January, Kingswood - along with an entity managed by the Chairman of the company - offered a roughly 20% premium over SMRT’s then-stock price ($0.90/share) to take Stein Mart private. Sales have been on the decline since 2016. Like many other retailers in this macro climate, Stein Mart was teetering pre-COVID. Now replace (a) Han with Kingswood Capital Management LLC, (b) Lando with Stein Mart, and (c) the “crazy space virus” with COVID-19 and you’ve basically got the story of Stein Mart’s collapse into bankruptcy court. As he clutches his throat struggling to breathe, he releases Lando who consequently hurls straight down towards the beast and suffers a horrific death. As Han pulls Lando up out of reach of the beast, all of the sudden some crazy space virus flows through the airspace and smacks Han straight in the lungs. Luckily, Han is able to grab Lando’s hand so that Lando doesn’t plummet into the gnarley tentacles of some strange sand beast that randomly happens to be there. Suddenly a riot breaks out and amidst the confusion Lando falls off the skiff.

To set the stage, imagine Han and Lando taking a fun little ride on a desert skiff. ($SMRT), a publicly-traded specialty off-price retailer with 281 stores across the Southeast, Texas, Arizona and California is the latest retailer to file bankruptcy (along with two affiliates).

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