Party City
Founded in 1986, Party City® established itself as the global leader in the party and celebrations industry and became the largest supplier in the U.S. and over 70 other countries. Party City® built omnichannel offerings to serve consumers under both the Party City® and Halloween City® banners, and with wholesale customers through Amscan®, an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of celebration décor, tableware, costumes, and accessories.
Party City® engaged Hilco Streambank to market and sell a substantial portfolio of intangible assets as part of its Chapter 11 proceedings. We took a strategic review of the portfolio and taxonomized the assets into segments supporting either the consumer-facing Party City® and Halloween City® retail banners or the sourcing and distribution wholesale-facing Amscan® business. This approach allowed us to tailor outreach to distinct buyers, which produced the intended result of greater buyer participation at auction, and ultimately maximum value.
Within one week of being engaged, we secured a $10 million stalking horse bid, which we assisted in documenting in just one more week. Through targeted marketing, including direct outreach to over 112 potential buyers, email campaigns reaching 25,000+ contacts, and digital advertising, including press coverage that was picked up by Bloomberg, Forbes, Law360, Debtwire, and Inside Retail, among others, we generated strong buyer engagement and created a competitive sale process.
Our expertise enabled an auction within 27 days of our process launch, involving six qualified bidders with unique perspectives on each of the segments of IP assets. This segmentation encouraged strategic partnerships and increased bidding activity, ultimately driving the total IP sale proceeds to $20.6 million—more than double the initial stalking horse bid. Additionally, our creative negotiations around a complex legacy agreement with Canadian Tire unlocked an additional $3.5 million in value, bringing the total transaction to $24.1 million.
The deal closed in early March 2025 and underscores Hilco Streambank’s ability to manage complex intangible asset sales under highly compressed timelines, leveraging deep market expertise and strategic deal structuring to deliver value-maximizing outcomes.
