SIMAD Holdings Files Chapter 11 After $214M Israeli Bond Default, Funds 29 Camps on Cash Collateral

SIMAD Holdings Ltd. and 60-plus affiliated debtors put their 29-camp summer-camp enterprise into chapter 11 on June 4, 2026, launching a cross-border restructuring dominated by an Israeli bond default and a fight over cash. The freefall filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey (Trenton) came days after the company missed the first interest payment on its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) Series A Debentures and as roughly $100 million of short-term merchant cash advances came due, leaving the debtors without liquidity to run the 2026 camp season.

The cases are funded by contested cash collateral rather than new DIP financing, and a newly installed chief restructuring officer is working to take bank accounts out of the hands of the controlling shareholders. Three secured parties are already objecting to the cash-collateral terms, restructuring counsel has appeared for unnamed creditors and sponsors, and no sale, plan, or committee structure has yet taken shape.

Debtor	SIMAD Holdings Ltd. (60+ jointly administered entities)
Court	U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey (Trenton)
Case Number	26-16388
Petition Date	June 4, 2026
Judge	Hon. Christine M. Gravelle
Case Posture	Freefall chapter 11; cash-collateral funded; no DIP
Claims Agent	Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC

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Summer Camp Portfolio and Cross-Border Holding Structure

SIMAD Holdings Ltd. is a British Virgin Islands holding company and the ultimate parent of the debtor group, and its controlling shareholders are Michael Shabsels and David Shabsels. Beyond the camp business, certain non-debtor or debtor affiliates own and operate multifamily properties, offices, hotels, and retail space, according to the First Day Declaration of Chief Restructuring Officer Assaf Ravid.

The enterprise operates 29 summer camps, including Camp Achim, Banner Day Camp, Blue Star Camps, Camp Chen-a-Wanda, Club Getaway, Island Lake Camp, Pine Forest Camp, Camp Lavi, Camp Lokanda, Camp Mesorah, Summit Camp and Travel, Camp Wekeela, and Windsor Mountain Summer Camp. Each camp runs independently with its own management, staff, and accounting, funded mainly by registration fees paid by parents with deposits due the year before the camp season, the First Day Declaration states.

The corporate structure is layered: many entities are held 99% by SIMAD and 1% by DAMIS Holdings, while others involve minority partners, and Willow Lake Day Camp is operated through separate entities (WL CampCo and WL LandCo) that are not debtors and are 50% owned by outside parties. Press coverage places the camps in the Catskills and Northeast — including six Maine camps — and ties at least one camp to a roughly $16,750-per-season price point, and the Shabsels' linkage to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange comes through the Series A bond.

Series A Bond Default and Shareholder Cash Transfers

The CRO declaration attributes the filing to a liquidity crisis in which the debtors could not satisfy funded-debt obligations, identifying two proximate triggers. The company defaulted on the first interest payment on the Series A Debentures due May 31, 2026, and the maturity dates on the merchant cash advance (MCA) loans in early June 2026 threatened to trigger remedies cutting off access to cash and accounts receivable. An emergent filing was required, the declaration says, to prevent what it describes as catastrophic impacts on operations and to let the summer camp season proceed.

Israeli financial reporting places a governance dispute at the center of the default. Roughly $34 million in company cash was transferred to entities controlled by the Shabsels without board approval, triggering the bond default and a TASE trading halt, according to Globes and The Real Deal. Globes reports the Israel Securities Authority is scrutinizing the transfers and that the controlling shareholders missed a deadline to return the funds.

Those dollar figures and the governance allegations come from external reporting rather than from the docket chunks reviewed, and the First Day Declaration does not state the $34 million transfer as a dollar figure. The declaration does describe newly installed CRO Assaf Ravid, engaged June 2, 2026, as working to obtain control over bank accounts and to remove the controlling shareholders' access to them, consistent with the external account of diverted cash.

Secured Debt Stack and the Series A Debentures

As of the petition date the debtors owed approximately $344 million to secured creditors, plus a separate stack of MCA short-term loans, according to the First Day Declaration. The largest instrument is the Series A Debentures, with a par value of NIS 620,000,000 (approximately $211.6 million) and a 7% coupon, secured by pledged collateral and administered by L Mishmeret Trust Company Ltd. as trustee for the TASE bondholders.

The remaining secured stack runs across regional banks, credit unions, alternative lenders, and government EIDLs, with estimated outstanding balances drawn from the First Day Declaration and the Cash Collateral Motion:

Secured party	Est. amount outstanding	Notes
L Mishmeret Trust Company Ltd. (Series A Debentures)	$214,022,000	NIS 620M par (~$211.6M); 7%; bondholder trustee
Bank of New Hampshire	$29,110,000	Replacement-lien adequate protection in interim order
Wayne Bank	$22,127,000	Senior lender flagged in marshalling dispute
Fidelity Bank	$19,967,000
Visions Credit Union	$17,980,708
Newtek Business Solutions Holdco 6 / NBL SPV II, LLC	$14,975,000
Mizzen Capital, LP	$9,828,000	Subject to "Senior Debt Cap" / subordination dispute
HT Northstar Property LLC / HT Property Management LLC	$3,860,000	Pine Forest collateral / CMC subordinated note
Bank of America	$3,380,000
U.S. Small Business Administration (EIDLs)	$3,254,897
HomeTrust Bank	$3,114,000
Community Bank	$2,286,000
Putnam County Savings Bank	$489,000
MCA Lenders (~42 lenders)	in excess of $100,000,000	Early-June maturities triggered the filing

General unsecured claims are estimated at approximately $2.7 million, the First Day Declaration states, while the voluntary petition estimates total liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion against assets of $100 million to $500 million. The 29-camp portfolio backing the bond is narrower than the whole enterprise: one analysis of the Series A collateral pool identifies a specific 16-camp pool rather than the debtor's full set of properties.

Cash Collateral Fight and Adequate Protection

The debtors did not seek DIP financing and instead asked the court to let them run on cash collateral. Judge Christine M. Gravelle entered an emergency interim order on June 8, 2026 authorizing immediate use of cash and cash collateral to satisfy prepetition gross salaries, payroll taxes, and other emergent expenses through June 15, 2026, under a budget showing total operating disbursements of $7,214,400.

That order granted the "Reserving Lenders" (the bond trustee and bondholders, Bank of New Hampshire, and Metropolitan Partners Group Administration, LLC) adequate protection under sections 361, 363(e), and 507(b), with Bank of New Hampshire receiving replacement liens to the extent of any diminution in value and all parties' validity, priority, and perfection rights reserved. A second interim cash collateral order followed on June 12, 2026.

Two days later the debtors filed a Cash Collateral Motion seeking interim and final orders, proposing an "Adequate Protection Package" of customary superpriority replacement liens, superpriority claims where appropriate, and operation under a detailed cash-collateral budget, and asking the court to modify the automatic stay to effectuate the orders and to schedule a final hearing within roughly 21 days of the petition. A supplemental exhibit to the motion was filed June 16, 2026. The first-day hearing was adjourned and rescheduled that same day, indicating the cash-collateral terms remained under negotiation among the contesting parties.

Pine Forest, Willow Lake, and Metropolitan Cash-Collateral Disputes

Three objecting parties are shaping the cash-collateral terms. Camping Management Corporation ("CMC") and Mitchell "Mickey" Black filed a limited objection asserting a $3,860,000 subordinated promissory note secured by a mortgage on Pike County, Pennsylvania real property, a security interest in fixtures and chattels, a pledge of 100% of the membership interests in the Pine Forest Debtors, and personal guaranties from Michael and David Shabsels.

CMC contends the motion fails to identify it as a putative secured party or grant it adequate protection, and it argues that Mizzen Capital's claims appear to exceed the "Senior Debt Cap" in the Mizzen Subordination Agreement, which could flip priority in CMC's favor. It invokes the doctrine of marshalling to compel Wayne Bank and Mizzen to satisfy claims first from non-Pine Forest collateral, and it requests adequate protection, preservation of its cap, flip, and marshalling rights, and pre-final-hearing budget disclosure.

The Willow Lake Parties (Steven Weissman, Wendy Saiff, and relatives; Willow Lake Day Camps, Inc.) filed a reservation of rights as 50% owners of the non-debtor WL CampCo and WL LandCo entities, contending that any liens the Shabsels granted against those entities were made without their required consent and are unauthorized or invalid. They reserve rights to challenge lien validity and perfection, to assert that any transfer or pledge of the Shabsels' interests is void or voidable under operating agreements and rights of first refusal, to oppose future DIP or financing touching the Willow Lake entities, and to demand a jury trial and de novo district court review, asking that the final order not determine ownership or validate liens on the Willow Lake interests. Metropolitan Partners Group Administration, LLC — one of the named "Reserving Lenders" — separately filed a reservation of rights preserving its position on cash-collateral use and adequate protection.

Professionals, CRO, and Restructuring Appearances

Cole Schotz P.C. serves as debtors' proposed counsel through Michael D. Sirota, Warren A. Usatine, and David M. Harris, and Assaf Ravid was engaged as Chief Restructuring Officer on June 2, 2026, per the First Day Declaration signature block. Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC serves as claims and noticing agent under a final retention order, with a $25,000 retainer and standard hourly rates, and disclosed that a Kroll managing director's son will work as a debtors' employee in summer 2026, according to the motion to retain the claims agent.

The appearances on the docket point to a contested restructuring. Kirkland & Ellis (Joshua A. Sussberg) and Wachtell Lipton (Joshua A. Feltman) entered through local counsel, and Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones (Robert J. Feinstein, Maxim B. Litvak, and Bradford J. Sandler) appeared for a "NewCo"-related party; their specific roles as committee, sponsor, or major creditor are not yet adjudicated. The cash-management record shows bank accounts historically controlled by David and Michael Shabsels, now with Ravid as CRO under the Cash Management Motion, and the debtors also moved for a critical vendor payment program.

Key Timeline

The first two weeks established the case's procedural framework and drew out the cash-collateral disputes, from the joint administration of the 60-plus debtor entities through the adjourned first-day hearing.

Date	Event
May 31, 2026	Default on first interest payment on the Series A Debentures
June 2, 2026	Assaf Ravid engaged as Chief Restructuring Officer
June 4, 2026	Chapter 11 petitions filed, Case 26-16388 (D.N.J.)
June 8, 2026	Emergency interim cash collateral and wages order entered
June 11, 2026	Order directing joint administration of the 60+ debtor entities
June 12, 2026	Second interim cash collateral order entered
June 14, 2026	First Day Declaration and full first-day motion package filed
June 15, 2026	List of 20 largest unsecured creditors filed; Metropolitan Partners reservation of rights
June 16, 2026	Willow Lake and CMC objections filed; supplemental cash-collateral exhibit; first-day hearing adjourned

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the claims agent for SIMAD Holdings?

Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC serves as the claims and noticing agent under a final retention order, with a $25,000 retainer and standard hourly rates. No general claims bar date has been set in the first-day record; a bar-date notice would be the filed milestone that governs any later claims deadline.

Why did SIMAD file for chapter 11?

The CRO declaration attributes the filing to a liquidity crisis driven by the May 31, 2026 default on the first interest payment on the Series A Debentures and the early-June maturities on more than $100 million of merchant cash advances. External reporting also links the default to roughly $34 million in cash transferred to shareholder-controlled entities without board approval.

How is the case funded without a DIP loan?

The debtors are operating on contested cash collateral rather than new DIP financing, under emergency interim orders authorizing a roughly $7.2 million operating budget and granting the Reserving Lenders replacement liens and superpriority adequate-protection claims. A final cash-collateral hearing was requested within roughly 21 days of the petition, but the first-day hearing was adjourned June 16, 2026.

What is the role of the Series A Debentures?

The Series A Debentures are the largest instrument in the capital structure, with roughly $214 million outstanding, a NIS 620 million par value, a 7% coupon, and L Mishmeret Trust Company Ltd. acting as trustee for the TASE bondholders. The bond is the source of the case's cross-border posture and the May 31 interest default that preceded the filing.

For related restructuring coverage, see the Israeli cross-border debt arrangement in Gamida Cell's chapter 15, the bond-default-driven asset sale in Brightmark Plastics' chapter 11, and the campus-operator default and collapse in Corvias Campus Living.