Exhibit 4.9A
INTERCREDITOR AGREEMENT
This INTERCREDITOR
AGREEMENT, dated as of
April 16, 2004 (as amended,
restated, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, this
"AGREEMENT"), is made by and among U.S.
BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, solely in its
capacity as trustee under the Indenture
(as defined
below) (in such
capacity,
the "TRUSTEE"), and WELLS FARGO FOOTHILL, INC., a California corporation
("WFF"), solely in its capacities as
FF&E Agent, DJL Lender, OED Lender, and New
Revolver Agent (as such terms are defined
below).
RECITALS
A. Diamond Jo, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("DJL"), The
Old Evangeline Downs Capital Corp., a
Delaware corporation ("OED CORP"; OED Corp
and DJL, together with any other Person that now or hereafter becomes an
"issuer" or "co-issuer" under the Indenture referred to below, whether by
joinder agreement or otherwise,
collectively,
the "ISSUERS"),
the guarantors
from time to time party thereto (the
"GUARANTORS"), and the Trustee have entered
into an Indenture, dated as of the date hereof (as amended, restated,
supplemented or otherwise modified from
time to time, the "INDENTURE"), pursuant
to which indebtedness was incurred by the Issuers,
the repayment of which is
guaranteed by the Guarantors and secured by security
interests in and liens
on
certain now owned and hereafter acquired
assets and properties
described in the
Indenture Security Documents (as defined
below) (the "COLLATERAL").
B. DJL, as borrower,
and WFF, as lender (in
such capacity,
the "DJL
LENDER"), have entered into a Loan and
Security Agreement,
dated as of February
23, 2001 (as amended, restated,
supplemented or
otherwise modified from time to
time, the "DJL CREDIT AGREEMENT"), pursuant
to which the DJL Lender agreed, upon
the terms and conditions stated therein, to make loans and advances to, or
to
issue letters of credit (or guaranties in respect thereof) for the account of,
DJL, the repayment of which is secured by security
interests in and liens
on
certain Collateral pursuant to the DJL Credit Agreement and the collateral
security documents, instruments and guaranties executed and delivered in
connection therewith by one or more of the
Issuers and the Guarantors, together
with such other agreements, instruments and certificates entered into in
connection with the DJL Credit Agreement (as such may be amended, restated,
supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, together with the DJL
Credit Agreement, the "DJL LOAN
DOCUMENTS").
C. The Old Evangeline
Downs, L.L.C.,
a Louisiana
limited liability
company ("OED"), and OED Corp, as borrowers (the
"OED BORROWERS"), and
WFF, as
lender (in such capacity, the "OED LENDER"), have entered into a Loan and
Security Agreement, dated as of June 24, 2003 (as amended, restated,
supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time, the "OED CREDIT
AGREEMENT," and together with the DJL Credit Agreement, the "EXISTING
Revolvers"), pursuant to which the OED Lender agreed, upon the terms and
conditions stated therein, to make loans
and advances to, or to issue letters of
credit (or guaranties in respect thereof)
for the account of, the OED Borrowers,
the repayment of which is secured by
security interests in
and liens on certain
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Collateral pursuant to the OED Credit
Agreement and the collateral security
documents, instruments and guaranties executed and delivered in connection
therewith by one or more of the Issuers and
the Guarantors,
together with such
other agreements, instruments and certificates
entered into in
connection with
the OED Credit Agreement (as such may be amended,
restated, supplemented or
otherwise modified from time to time,
together with the OED
Credit Agreement,
the "OED LOAN DOCUMENTS"; the OED Loan Documents, together with the DJL Loan
Documents, the "EXISTING REVOLVER
DOCUMENTS").
D. OED and
OED Corp, as borrowers (together with each of OED's
subsidiaries from time to time party
thereto, the "FF&E BORROWERS"), the lenders
from time to time party thereto (the
"FF&E LENDERS"), and WFF, as administrative
agent for the FF&E Lenders (in such
capacity, the
"FF&E AGENT"),
have entered
into a Loan and Security Agreement,
dated as of September
22, 2003 (as amended,
restated, supplemented or otherwise
modified from time to time, the "FF&E CREDIT
AGREEMENT"), pursuant to which the FF&E Lenders agreed, upon the terms and
conditions stated therein, to make term loans to the FF&E Borrowers, the
repayment of which is or may be secured by
security interests
in and liens on
certain Collateral pursuant to the FF&E Credit
Agreement and the collateral
security documents and instruments executed and delivered in connection
therewith by one or more of the Issuers and
the Guarantors,
together with such
other agreements, instruments and certificates
entered into in
connection with
the FF&E Credit Agreement (as such may be amended,
restated, supplemented or
otherwise modified from time to time,
together with the
FF&E Credit Agreement,
the "FF&E LOAN DOCUMENTS").
E. In connection
with the offering of
the notes under the
Indenture,
each of DJL and the OED Borrowers have agreed to use their good faith
commercially reasonable efforts to obtain required
approvals from the relevant
gaming authorities and to repay in full
and refinance (the
"REFINANCING") the
Existing Revolvers, pursuant to a proposed
new revolving loan and security
agreement (as amended, restated,
supplemented,
refinanced or otherwise modified
from time to time, the "NEW REVOLVER
AGREEMENT")
among DJL, the OED
Borrowers,
certain lenders from time to time party
thereto (the "NEW
REVOLVER
LENDERS"),
and WFF, as administrative agent for the
New Revolver Lenders (in such capacity,
the "NEW REVOLVER AGENT"). As with the Existing Revolvers, it is contemplated
that the New Revolver Agreement will be secured by security
interests in and
liens on certain Collateral pursuant to the agreements, collateral security
documents, instruments and guaranties executed and delivered in connection
therewith by one or more of the Issuers and
the Guarantors,
together with the
other agreements, instruments and certificates
entered into in
connection with
the New Revolver Agreement (as such may be amended,
restated, supplemented or
otherwise modified from time to time,
together with the New
Revolver Agreement,
the "NEW REVOLVER DOCUMENTS").
F. One of the
conditions of the
Senior Lien Documents is that the
priority of the security interests and liens on the Collateral securing the
obligations under such documents be senior to the security interests in and
liens on the Collateral in favor of the Trustee
in the manner and to the extent
provided for in this Agreement.
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G. The Trustee and the Senior Lien Creditor Representatives (on behalf
of the Senior Lien Creditors) desire to enter into this
Agreement concerning
their respective rights with respect to the priority of their respective
security interests in and liens on the
Collateral.
H. The terms of the Indenture permit the Issuers and the
Guarantors to
(1) remain obligated under the FF&E Loan
Documents and the
Existing Revolver
Documents to which they are parties, and (2) enter into the New Revolver
Documents and, in connection therewith, authorize and direct the Trustee to
enter into an intercreditor agreement substantially in the form of this
Agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, the Parties hereby agree as follows:
ARTICLE I
DEFINITIONS
Section 1.1 Definitions. In addition to the capitalized
terms defined
above in the preamble and the recitals
hereto, as used in this Agreement,
the
following terms shall have the meanings set
forth below:
"CREDIT FACILITY
INDEBTEDNESS"
shall mean all present and future
obligations (including principal,
interest, fees and
reimbursement
obligations
under letters of credit), contingent or otherwise, of the Issuers and the
Guarantors to the Senior Lien Creditors
arising under or
pursuant to the Senior
Lien Documents, including, in each case, interest,
fees, and expenses
accruing
after the initiation of any Insolvency Proceeding (irrespective of whether
allowed as a claim in such proceeding),
and including the
secured claims of any
Senior Lien Creditor in respect of the
Collateral in any Insolvency Proceeding.
"ENFORCEMENT ACTION"
shall mean the
exercise of any right or remedy
with respect to any Collateral (including
any right of set-off) or the taking of
any Foreclosure Action or other action to enforce,
collect or realize
upon any
Collateral, or the commencement of any action,
whether judicial or
otherwise,
for the enforcement of such Party's
rights and remedies as
a secured creditor
with respect to the Collateral, or the commencement of any receivership
proceedings or any other sale of, collection on, or disposition of, any
Collateral, including the exercise of any right, remedy or action to: (a)
exercise any collection rights in respect of any Collateral or notify any
account debtors to make payment directly to such Party or its
agents or other
Persons acting on its behalf or retain any proceeds of accounts and other
obligations receivable paid by any account debtor; (b) take or accept any
transfer of title in lieu of foreclosure
upon any Collateral; (c) enforce any
claim to the proceeds of insurance upon any
Collateral; (d)
deliver any notice,
claim or demand relating to the Collateral to any Person (including any
securities intermediary, depositary bank or landlord) in the possession or
control of any Collateral or acting as
bailee, custodian or
agent for any Party
in respect of any Collateral; or (e) otherwise enforce any remedy available
to
such Party upon default for the enforcement
of any Lien upon the Collateral.
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"ENFORCEMENT EVENT"
shall mean the
occurrence and
continuance of an
"Event of Default" as defined under Section
6 of the Indenture.
"ENFORCEMENT
EVENT NOTICE" shall
have the meaning
ascribed thereto in
Section 3.2.
"ENTITLED PARTY"
shall have the meaning
ascribed thereto in Section
4.1(a).
"EVENT OF DEFAULT" shall mean, with respect to any Senior Lien
Document, the occurrence of an "Event of
Default" under, and as defined in, such
Senior Lien Document.
"FF&E SECURED LIABILITIES" shall mean Secured Liabilities
evidenced by
the FF&E Loan Documents.
"FINANCING DOCUMENTS" shall mean the Indenture Documents and the
Senior
Lien Documents.
"FORECLOSURE ACTION" shall mean any action to foreclose upon or
enforce
a Lien against any of the Collateral, including (a) commencing judicial or
non-judicial foreclosure proceedings, (b) exercising any rights afforded to
secured creditors in a case under the Bankruptcy Law with respect to the
Collateral, or (c) taking any action
under the Bankruptcy Law that directly
relates to or directly affects any such
Collateral,
other than any such
action
that relates to or affects all or substantially all of the property of the
bankruptcy estate.
"FULLY PAID" shall
mean (a) with respect to the Indenture Documents,
the payment in cash or cash equivalents in full of all
obligations (other
than
contingent, unliquidated indemnity obligations that survive payment in full)
under the Indenture Documents, and (b) with
respect to any Senior Lien Document,
(i) the payment in cash or cash
equivalents in full of
all obligations
(other
than contingent, unliquidated indemnity obligations that survive payment in
full) under such Senior Lien Document (it
being agreed and understood that with
respect to any Senior Lien Document,
the principal
amount of such
obligations
shall at no time exceed the applicable
Maximum Credit
Facility Amount), plus
related interest, fees, costs, expenses and reimbursement and
indemnification
obligations), and (ii) the termination of all
commitments or other
obligations
of the Senior Lien Creditors under such Senior Lien
Document to extend
credit
thereunder to any Issuer, any Guarantor, or
any other subsidiary of an Issuer.
"INDENTURE DOCUMENTS"
shall mean the Indenture, the Notes, the
Indenture Security Documents and the Registration
Rights Agreement,
and such
other agreements, instruments and certificates executed and delivered (or
issued) by the Issuers or the Guarantors
pursuant to the
Indenture,
as any or
all of the same may be amended,
restated, supplemented or otherwise modified
from time to time.
"INDENTURE SECURITY
DOCUMENTS"
has the meaning
assigned to the
term
"Security Documents" in the Indenture.
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"INSOLVENCY
PROCEEDING" shall mean
any proceeding for the purposes of
dissolution, winding up, liquidation, arrangement or reorganization of the
Issuers, any Guarantor, or any other subsidiary of the Issuers, or their
respective successors or assigns, whether in bankruptcy, insolvency,
arrangement, reorganization or receivership
proceedings, or upon
an assignment
for the benefit of creditors or any other marshaling of the assets and
liabilities of the Issuers, any Guarantor, or any other subsidiary of the
Issuers, or their respective successors or
assigns.
"LIEN PRIORITY"
shall mean, with respect to any Lien in and to
the
Collateral, the order of priority of such Lien
as specified in Sections 2.1 and
2.2.
"MAXIMUM CREDIT
FACILITY AMOUNT" shall mean, with respect to Credit
Facility Indebtedness owed pursuant to (a) the FF&E Loan Documents,
$[16,000,000] (less any permanent
principal reductions thereto), and (b) the
Senior Lien Documents (other than the
FF&E Loan Documents), $35,000,000, which
amount may be increased or decreased as provided in Section
4.7(b)(i) of the
Indenture (as in effect on the date
hereof), in each case in aggregate principal
amount of such Credit Facility Indebtedness, plus all related interest, fees
expenses and indemnification obligations or such greater amount or amounts
as
the Trustee may consent to in its
discretion.
"NEW REVOLVER
SECURED LIABILITIES" shall mean Secured Liabilities
evidenced by the New Revolver Loan
Documents.
"PARTY" shall mean
each of (a) the
Trustee, (b) the
FF&E Agent,
(c)
prior to the Refinancing, the DJL Lender, (d) prior to the
Refinancing, the OED
Lender, and (e) upon and after the
Refinancing, the New Revolver Agent.
"SECURED LIABILITIES" shall mean the Subordinated Lien Indebtedness
and
the Credit Facility Indebtedness (up to the
Maximum Credit Facility Amount).
"SECURITY
DOCUMENTS" shall
mean any and all Indenture Security
Documents and any and all Senior Lien Documents, in each case executed,
delivered or authorized by an Issuer or any Guarantor or any subsidiary of an
Issuer pursuant to which such Person
grants to the Trustee (as security for the
Subordinated Lien Indebtedness) or any
Senior Lien Creditor (as security for the
applicable Credit Facility Indebtedness) a
security interest in any Collateral.
"SENIOR LIEN DOCUMENTS" shall mean, collectively and individually,
(a)
the FF&E Loan Documents, and (b) (i) prior to the
Refinancing,
the Existing
Revolver Documents, and (ii) upon and after the
Refinancing, the New
Revolver
Documents.
"SENIOR LIEN CREDITORS" shall mean, collectively and individually,
(a)
the FF&E Agent and the FF&E
Lenders, and (b) (i)
prior to the Refinancing, the
DJL Lender and the OED Lender, and (ii)
upon and after the Refinancing, the New
Revolver Agent and the New Revolver
Lenders.
"SENIOR LIEN CREDITOR
REPRESENTATIVES" shall
mean, collectively
and
individually, (a) the FF&E Agent,
on behalf of the
FF&E Lenders,
and (b) (i)
prior to the
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Refinancing, the DJL Lender and the OED Lender, and (ii) upon and after the
Refinancing, the New Revolver Agent on
behalf of the New Revolver Lenders.
"SUBORDINATED LIEN
INDEBTEDNESS"
shall mean all
present and future
obligations, contingent or otherwise,
of the Issuers and the
Guarantors to the
Trustee or Holders arising under or pursuant to the Indenture Documents,
including, in each case, interest, fees and expenses accruing after the
initiation of any Insolvency Proceeding (irrespective of whether allowed as a
claim in such proceeding), and including the secured
claims of the Trustee
or
the Holders in respect of the Collateral in
any Insolvency Proceeding.
Section 1.2 Indenture Definitions. All other capitalized terms that
are
used but not defined herein shall have the
respective meaning
indicated in the
Indenture, as in effect on the date
hereof.
Section 1.3
Miscellaneous. All
definitions herein
(whether set forth
herein directly or by reference to
definitions
in other documents) shall be
equally applicable to both the singular and the plural forms of the terms
defined. The words "hereof," "herein" or
"hereunder" and words of similar import
when used in this Agreement shall refer to this Agreement as a
whole and not to
any particular provision of this Agreement.
Article and section
references are
to articles and sections of this Agreement
unless otherwise specified. The term
"including" shall mean "including without
limitation."
ARTICLE II
LIEN PRIORITY
Section 2.1 Agreement to Subordinate Liens. The Trustee hereby agrees
that all Liens of the Trustee for the benefit of itself and the
Holders in and
to the Collateral are and shall be junior
to and subordinate in
priority to the
Liens of any or all of the Senior Lien Creditors in and to the Collateral
securing Credit Facility Indebtedness (up to the Maximum Credit Facility
Amount); provided that, the rights of a
Party under this Agreement shall be void
and of no further force and effect if, and
only to the extent, that the Liens of
such Party in and to the Collateral are avoided, disallowed, set aside or
otherwise invalidated in any action or proceeding by a court, tribunal or
administrative agency of competent jurisdiction and such avoidance,
disallowance, set aside or other invalidation is permanent and is not later
reversed. The subordination of the Liens of the Trustee for the benefit of
itself and the Holders in and to the Collateral in favor of the Senior
Lien
Creditors provided for herein shall not be
deemed to (a)
subordinate the Liens
of the Trustee for the benefit of itself and the
Holders to the Liens
of any
other Person, or (b) subordinate the
Subordinated Lien Indebtedness to any other
Indebtedness of the Issuers or any of the Guarantors, including the Credit
Facility Indebtedness.
Section 2.2
Non-Contest; Excluded
Assets. Each Party agrees that it
will not attack or contest the validity,
perfection, priority
or enforceability
of the Liens of the other Party or finance or urge any other Person to do so;
provided that, any Party may enforce its
rights and privileges hereunder without
being deemed to have violated this
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provision. Any provision contained in this Agreement to the contrary
notwithstanding, the terms and conditions of this
Agreement shall not apply, as
between any Senior Lien Creditor
Representative on the one hand, and the Trustee
on the other hand, to any property or
assets (including
property or assets that
do not constitute Collateral) as to which such Senior Lien Creditor
Representative has a Lien and as to which the
Trustee does not have a Lien, or
as to which the Trustee has a Lien and such
Senior Lien Creditor
Representative
does not have a Lien.
Section 2.3
Exercise of Rights.
(a) The Trustee may exercise, and nothing herein shall
constitute
a waiver of, any right it may have at law
or equity to receive
notice of, or to
commence or join with any creditor in commencing any Insolvency Proceeding;
provided that, the exercise of any such right by the Trustee shall be (i)
subject to the Lien Priority and application of proceeds of Collateral as
provided in Section 3.4 and (ii) subject to
the provisions
of Sections 3.1
and
3.2.
(b) Notwithstanding
any other provision
hereof, the Trustee may
make such demands or file such claims as may
be necessary to prevent the waiver
or bar of such claims under applicable statutes of limitations or other
statutes, court orders or rules of
procedure.
Section 2.4
Priority of Liens. (a) Irrespective of any priority
otherwise available to the Trustee by law or
agreement or
irrespective of
the
order of recording of mortgages,
financing statements, security agreements or
other instruments, and irrespective of the
descriptions of Collateral contained
in the Financing Documents, including any financing statements, each of the
Trustee and the Senior Lien Creditor Representatives hereby agree among
themselves that their respective Liens in the Collateral
shall be governed
by
the Lien Priority, which shall be controlling in the event of any conflict
between this Agreement and any of the
Financing Documents.
(b) Each Party agrees that this Agreement and the Lien Priority
shall remain in full force and effect without regard to, and shall not be
released, suspended, discharged, terminated, modified or otherwise
affected by
any circumstance or occurrence whatsoever (other than in accordance with
the
terms hereof), including any of the following (whether or not such Party
consents thereto or has notice thereof): (i) any change in or waiver of
the
time, place or manner of payment, or any other term, of any of the Secured
Liabilities or Financing Documents, any waiver of or any renewal,
extension,
increase, refinancing, amendment or modification of or addition, consent or
supplement to or deletion from, or any other action or inaction under or in
respect of, any of the Secured Liabilities or Financing
Documents or any
other
document, instrument or agreement referred to therein or any
assignment
or
transfer of any of the Secured Liabilities or Financing Documents; (ii) any
furnishing of any additional collateral for any of the Secured
Liabilities or
any sale, exchange, release or surrender of, or
realization on, any collateral
for any of the Secured Liabilities;
(iii) any settlement,
release or compromise
of any of the Secured Liabilities or Financing Documents, any collateral
therefor, or any liability of any other
party (including any
other Party) with
respect to any
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of the Secured Liabilities or Financing Documents, or any subordination of
payment of any Secured Liabilities to the payment of any other indebtedness,
liability or obligation of any of the
Issuers, Guarantors or
any subsidiary of
any Issuer; (iv) any bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, composition,
adjustment, merger, consolidation, dissolution, liquidation or other like
proceeding or occurrence relating to any of the Issuers,
Guarantors,
or any
subsidiary of any Issuer, or any other change in the ownership, control,
composition or nature of any of the Issuers,
Guarantors,
or any subsidiary
of
any Issuer; (v) any application of sums paid
by any of the Issuers,
Guarantors
or any subsidiary of any Issuer with
respect to any of the Secured Liabilities,
except to the extent actually applied against such Secured Liabilities,
regardless of what other liabilities of the Issuers, Guarantors, or any
subsidiary of any Issuer remain unpaid; or (vi) the failure of any Party to
assert any claim or demand or to enforce any right or remedy against the
Issuers, Guarantors, any subsidiary of any
Issuer or any other Person (including
any other Party with respect to any of the Secured Liabilities) under the
provisions of any of the Financing
Documents or otherwise.
Section 2.5
Insolvency. (a) The
provisions of this
Agreement will be
applicable both before and after the filing
or commencement
of any Insolvency
Proceeding and all converted or succeeding
cases in respect
thereof, and all
references herein to any Issuer or Guarantor shall be deemed to apply to
the
trustee for such Issuer and/or Guarantor and such Issuer and/or
Guarantor as a
debtor-in-possession. The relative rights of the Senior
Lien Creditors in or to
any distributions from or in respect of any
Collateral or proceeds of Collateral
shall continue after the filing of such
Insolvency Proceeding
on the same basis
as prior to the date of such filing,
subject to any court
order approving
the
financing of, or use of cash collateral by, any Issuer or Guarantor as
debtor-in-possession. If, in any Insolvency Proceeding and at any time any
Credit Facility Indebtedness exists that has not been Fully
Paid, all of the
Senior Lien Creditors (or such number of the
Senior Lien Creditors
as may have
the power to bind all of them):
(i) consent to any order for use of cash collateral or agree
to the
extension of any Credit Facility Indebtedness (including any
debtor-in-possession financing) to any Issuer or Guarantor;
(ii) consent
to any order granting any priming lien,
replacement
lien, cash payment or other relief on account of Credit
Facility
Indebtedness
as adequate
protection (or its
equivalent) for the
interests of the
Senior Lien Creditors in the property subject to such Lien
of a Senior Lien
Creditor Representative;
(iii) consent to any order approving post-petition financing
pursuant to
Section 364 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (including any
"roll-up" of
Credit Facility Indebtedness); or
(iv) consent to any
order relating
to a sale of assets
of
any Issuer or
Guarantor that provides, to the extent the sale is to be free
and clear of
Liens, that all Liens of the Senior Lien Creditor
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Representatives
and the Lien of the Trustee shall attach to the proceeds of
the sale,
then the Trustee and the Holders will not
oppose or otherwise
contest the entry
of such order.
(b) So long as there