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Port-a-potty company files for bankruptcy to wipe away $2.4bn in debt (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/economics@lemmy.world

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United Site Services, which owns 350,000 portable restrooms, filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey on Monday with a plan to eliminate $2.4 billion in debt and hand control to the company's lenders.

USS, which is owned by private equity firm Platinum Equity Partners, said that a majority of the company's lenders have agreed to support the restructuring plan. Despite the high level of support, one large holdout creditor opposes the plan and could pursue a path of "delay and litigation," according to USS' court filings.

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[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Okay... I have to ask... HOW does a port-a-potty company wind up 2.4 billion in debt???

You buy the port-a-potty, you rent it out. You deliver it, you pick it up, you clean it. I cannot imagine a rental industry with more predictable costs.

It's also the only equipment rental industry I can think of where the renter will do everything in their power to use the rented equipment as LITTLE as possible.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

USS said that its high debt, which funded several expansions and acquisitions over the years, became unsustainable in recent years due to high inflation and a downturn in residential housing construction in the U.S.

Many of the company’s biggest customers are construction sites, and lower construction activity cut into the company’s revenues while interest payments, fuel and labor became increasingly expensive, according to the company’s court filings.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It still doesn't make sense to me... Surely you'd notice you're at overcapacity somewhere around 1 billion in excess shit houses.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Well it was owned by a private equity company, maybe they were running some kind of scheme to make it look like the company was worth more than it was on paper which had something to do with why it was so overleveraged.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Or they used the company to dump debt and erase it.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

THAT I buy.