Another ‘Cockroach’: Subprime Auto-Lender PrimaLend Enters Bankruptcy

Another cockroach?

PrimaLend Capital Partners, which provides financing to auto dealerships that cater to subprime borrowers, filed for bankruptcy after months of negotiations with creditors following missed interest payments on its debt. 

Its products include financing for receivables, real estate and automobile inventory, according to its website.

This follows the sudden collapse of Tricolor (subprime auto lender) and First Brands (after-market auto parts supplier) with PrimaLend listing estimated assets and liabilities below $500 million each, according to court documents it filed in the Northern District of Texas. 

In a press release, PrimaLend said it was pursuing a sale of the business in bankruptcy court and would continue to fund and service loans to its own borrowers.

PrimaLend finances “buy here, pay here” auto dealerships, which serve low-income borrowers.

“No debt is being called due or accelerated as a result of this process,” PrimaLend’s chief executive officer, Mark Jensen, said in the release.

“We deeply value our dealer-borrower relationships and look forward to continuing to serve the buy-here-pay-here industry as we move forward.”

The company has received a commitment for bankruptcy financing to help fund operations in Chapter 11 from existing lenders, according to the release.

None of this should come as a surprise since we have seen auto loan delinquencies soar and now repossession breaking records.

Building a business on the back of lending to illegal immigrants to enable the purchase of a rapidly devaluing asset – brilliant!

There are many more dominoes left to fall (or cockroaches left to discover) in this space – the question is, will there be contagion? Even Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey chimed in this week, warning that the First Brands (and similar Tricolor) collapses could signal “much bigger financial problems” ahead.