Alpha Latam Management and certain of its affiliates that filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware received court approval for the proposed sale of the loan portfolio and certain related assets of debtor entities Alpha Capital and Vive Créditos Kusida to CFG Partners Colombia following an auction process.

The proposed sale is estimated to produce a gross value of approximately $149.5 million. CFG Partners’ successful bid was the result of six rounds of bidding during the auction and is higher than the purchase price reflected in the stalking horse asset purchase agreement approved by the bankruptcy court in October of $134.9 million.

The CFG Partners bid ultimately was deemed the highest and best bid because in addition to the purchase of the assets of the loan portfolio, it included the assumption of Alpha Capital and Vive Créditos Kusida’s Bogota headquarters lease, the purchase of related HQ facility assets and equipment and the potential hiring of certain of the debtors’ employees.

The closing of the sale is conditioned upon regulatory approval by the Colombian Superintendence of Corporations and other customary closing conditions.

“We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Alpha’s Colombian loan portfolio, which will accelerate the strategic geographic expansion of our operations into Colombia, which will now become an important growth driver for CFG,” Oriol Segarra, president and CEO of CFG, said.

“The ‘libranza’ or payroll deduction loan origination business model in Colombia is similar to that of our existing operations in other geographies where CFG has maintained a leading franchise for decades. We have already assembled a local management team with experience in this market that will manage the Alpha acquisition and lead the launch of our payroll loan deduction product via digital channels in the upcoming months,” Eduardo Arguello, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at CFG, said.

The debtors are being advised by White & Case and PPU. Rothschild & Co served as the debtors’ investment banker for the proposed transaction. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal counsel to CFG in connection with the transaction, and Brigard Urrutia is serving as its Colombian counsel.