SECOND AMENDMENT
TO
SERVICING AGREEMENT
THIS SECOND AMENDMENT TO SERVICING
AGREEMENT (this “
Amendment ”), is made and entered into as of
May 22, 2009, by and among AARON’S, INC., a Georgia
corporation formerly known as Aaron Rents, Inc. (“
Sponsor ”), and SUNTRUST BANK (“
SunTrust ”), as Servicer (in such capacity, the
“ Servicer ”).
WHEREAS, the Sponsor and the Servicer are
parties to a certain Servicing Agreement, dated as of May 28,
2004, as amended by that certain First Amendment to Servicing
Agreement dated as of May 23, 2008 (as so amended and as may be
further amended, restated, supplemented or otherwise modified from
time to time, the “ Servicing Agreement
”; capitalized terms used herein and not otherwise defined
shall have the meanings assigned to such terms in the Servicing
Agreement or the Loan Facility Agreement, as the context requires),
pursuant to which the Servicer has made certain financial
accommodations available to the Sponsor;
WHEREAS, the Sponsor has requested that the
Servicer amend certain provisions of the Servicing Agreement, and
subject to the terms and conditions hereof, the Servicer is willing
to do so;
NOW, THEREFORE, for good and valuable
consideration, the sufficiency and receipt of all of which are
acknowledged, the Sponsor and the Servicer agree as
follows:
(a) Section 1.1 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing the definition of
“Commitment Letter” with the following:
“
Commitment Letter ” means a letter from Servicer to a
potential Borrower named in a Funding Approval Notice,
substantially in the form of Exhibit C , whereby
Servicer agrees to establish a Loan Commitment in favor of such
Franchisee upon the terms and conditions set forth therein and in
the Operative Documents.
(b) Section 1.1 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by deleting the definition of
“EBIT”.
(c) Section 2.1 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing subsections (a) and
(c) of such Section in their entirety with the
following:
(a) In the event that Sponsor desires that
Servicer establish a Loan Commitment under the Operative Documents,
Sponsor shall forward to Servicer an appropriate Funding Approval
Notice no later than thirty (30) days prior to the anticipated
Closing Date of such Loan Commitment. Such Funding Approval Notice
shall indicate whether the requested Loan Commitment is a Line of
Credit Commitment, a Revolving Commitment or a Term Loan Commitment
and shall contain the following information:
(i) the
Franchisee’s legal name and State of organization;
(ii) the
amount of the Loan Commitment;
(iii) the
applicable interest rate for such Loan;
(iv) the amount of the Commitment Fee,
which shall not exceed 100 basis points;
(v) a copy of the Franchisee’s
executed franchise application authorizing release of all
information set forth therein or delivered in connection therewith
to Servicer;
(vi) the Franchisee’s federal tax
identification number or social security number;
(vii) the legal address(es) (including
county) of the Franchisee’s residence or principal place of
business, each store location, and the site(s) where any Collateral
to be pledged as security for the Loan is stored, together with any
other corporate or tradenames used by the Franchisee in the last
five (5) years;
(viii) if the Franchisee is a corporation,
copies of the Franchisee’s Articles or Certificate of
Incorporation, certified by the Secretary of State of its
incorporation, copies of the Franchisee’s by-laws and current
incumbency certificate, if the Franchisee is a partnership, a copy
of the current partnership agreement, if the Franchisee is a
limited liability company, a copy of the current operating or
limited liability company agreement and if the Franchisee is a sole
proprietor, a Statement of Sole Proprietorship in the form provided
by Servicer;
(ix) good standing certificate from the
Secretary of State in which the Franchisee is organized or
formed;
(x) for any Revolving Commitment or Term
Loan Commitment, a detailed description of the financial covenants
to be included in the Loan Agreement, including any defined terms
used in such financial covenants; and
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(xi) such other information as Servicer
shall reasonably request, including, without limitation, a listing
of all Subsidiaries of the Franchisee, a listing of all Guarantors
and a listing of all Permitted Liens.
The Funding Approval Notice shall contain a
statement that Sponsor has approved the Franchisee for a franchise
license and for participation in the Franchisee Loan Program and
shall also state that the Sponsor consents to the liens in favor of
Servicer provided for therein.
(c) Sponsor shall forward to Servicer a
completed Store Opening Information Sheet
(i) contemporaneously with the Funding Approval Notice if the
Franchisee is already a Borrower and (ii) at least ten
(10) Business Days prior to the anticipated Closing Date if
the Franchisee is not presently a Borrower, in each case together
with the following additional documents:
(1) a duly
executed Landlord’s Waiver for each leased location listed on
the Store Opening Information Sheet where the financed Merchandise
is located, substantially in the form of Exhibit H ;
and
(2) complete legal descriptions for each
leased location listed on the Store Opening Information Sheet where
the financed Merchandise is located.
If Sponsor
fails to deliver any of the foregoing items to the Servicer, the
Servicer shall have no obligation to maintain such items in its
files or to notify Sponsor that such items have not been received
by Servicer.
(d) Section 2.2 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing the second paragraph of
such Section in its entirety with the following:
To the extent that any of the foregoing items
(other than the Loan Agreement or Master Note) have been provided
by the relevant Franchisee in connection with a prior Loan, Sponsor
may waive the requirement that such documents be prepared by the
Servicer or executed by the Franchisee. At the request of the
Sponsor set forth in the Funding Approval Notice, the Servicer will
prepare a Commitment Letter and forward such Commitment Letter with
the Legal Forms to the Franchisee.
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(e) Section 2.2 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby further amended by replacing the contact
information for SunTrust Bank with the following:
Aaron’s
Program Manager
SunTrust Bank
Program Lending
303 Peachtree Street, N.E.
2 nd
Floor
Mail Code 1802
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
(f) Section 2.3 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing subsections (b) and
(c) of such Section in their entirety with the
following:
(b) Each of the Loan Agreements shall
require that the applicable Borrower thereunder comply with the
following financial covenant[s]:
[(i) Rental Revenue to Debt Service .
Commencing on the first day of the calendar quarter in which the
25th month following the Opening Date of the first store location
of the Borrower occurs and measured as of the last day of the
calendar quarter in which such 25th month occurs and on the last
day of each calendar quarter thereafter, the ratio of the
Borrower’s Rental Revenue to Debt Service for such quarter
shall not be less than 2.2:1.0;] 1
(ii) Debt to Rental Revenue . [Commencing
on the first day of the calendar quarter in which the first day of
the 19th month following the Opening Date of the first store
location of Borrower occurs and measured as of the last day of the
calendar quarter in which such 19th month occurs and on the last
day of each calendar quarter thereafter,][On the last day of each
calendar quarter] the ratio of Borrower’s Debt to
Borrower’s Rental Revenue, shall not exceed
[_____]:1.0. 2
To the extent any of the financial covenants set
forth above in this Section 2.3(b) are calculated based upon the
Opening Date of a store location, the financial information from
store locations that have not reached the Opening Date anniversary
incorporated into such covenants shall be excluded from such
calculations. Debt Service and Debt attributable to such locations
and deducted from the final calculations shall be deducted on a pro
rata basis calculated by dividing such stores’ aggregate Net
Book Value of Merchandise by the Net Book Value of Merchandise for
all store locations. The financial covenants shall otherwise be
calculated on a consolidated basis as to all store
locations.
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Note :
This covenant will not apply in the case of any Borrowers who have
Revolving Loans or Term Loans as, in such case, the Borrowing Base
in the applicable Loan Agreement will apply in lieu of this
covenant.
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Note :
This covenant will apply and be tested on last day of each calendar
quarter and not be tied to any Opening Date of store locations in
the case of any Borrowers who have Revolving Loans or Term Loans.
Covenant levels for this covenant will be established by Sponsor in
the applicable Loan Agreement for each Borrower.
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(g) Section 2.4 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing such Section in its
entirety with the following:
2.4 Use of
Loan Proceeds; Mechanics of Loan Program for Line of Credit
Loans .
(a) No later than fifteen (15) days
after Servicer’s receipt of the executed Loan Documents,
Servicer shall establish a DDA Account for the Franchisee and shall
also establish Loan Account for the Franchisee.
(b) Upon establishment of the
above-referenced accounts and receipt of the above-referenced Loan
Documents, duly executed by the Borrower and each Guarantor, and if
requested by Sponsor in writing, confirmation by Servicer of its
first-priority security interest in the Collateral, Servicer shall
notify the Borrower and Sponsor that the Borrower may request
Advances pursuant to the Line of Credit Commitment; provided
, however , that the minimum amount of each Advance shall be
$500. Each Advance shall be made by Servicer for the sole purpose
of honoring requests from the Borrower, made through the
Aaron’s Proprietary System, for ACH transfers to suppliers of
Merchandise in payment of Approved Invoices, for payment of state
sales and use taxes and for payment of freight charges. The
Borrowers shall not be authorized to use the DDA Account for any
other purpose.
(c) Each Borrower will submit purchase
order requests for Merchandise to Sponsor. In the event that the
purchase order is authorized pursuant to the Franchise Agreement,
Sponsor will prepare the purchase order and submit the same to the
appropriate supplier requested by the Borrower. The supplier will
be instructed to ship all Merchandise directly to the Borrower and
the Borrower will be responsible for inspecting all Merchandise and
resolving all disputes regarding the Merchandise with such
supplier. The supplier will invoice the Borrower for such
Merchandise in accordance with normal industry practice. When the
Borrower wishes to pay such invoice, the Borrower, subject to
availability of its Loan Commitment and the minimum borrowing
threshold, shall pay such invoice by directing Servicer, through
the Aaron’s Proprietary System, to pay such invoice by means
of an ACH transfer from its DDA Account. Any directions for ACH
transfers inputted by the Borrowers into the Aaron’s
Proprietary System prior to 12:00 Midnight (Atlanta, Georgia time)
on any Business Day, shall be forwarded to Servicer pursuant to
Sponsor’s existing ACH access by 3:30 p.m. (Atlanta, Georgia
time) on the next Business Day and, if properly forwarded to
Servicer by Sponsor shall be paid by Servicer no later than the
second Business Day thereafter, unless Sponsor is otherwise
notified by Servicer.
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(d) Sponsor hereby acknowledges and agrees
that Servicer has no ability to halt an ACH transfer upon the
inputting of such transfer request by Sponsor from the
Aaron’s Proprietary System into the ACH system (other than
the ability to retrieve ACH transfers which are sent to the wrong
party or otherwise manifestly erroneous as provided in the ACH
Agreement with Sponsor) and Sponsor accepts full responsibility for
any overadvance created by such inputting of information. Upon
receipt of the request for an ACH transfer, Servicer shall honor
such request by making an Advance pursuant to the Loan Commitment
in the amount of such request into the Borrower’s DDA Account
and automatically forwarding such amount to the supplier by means
of an ACH transfer in accordance with the instructions of the
Borrower passed onto Servicer by Sponsor.
(e) Nothing set forth herein shall be
deemed to vary the terms and conditions of the MicroACH Service
Agreement by and between Servicer and Sponsor.
(h) Section 2.5 of the Servicing
Agreement is hereby amended by replacing such Section in its
entirety with the Following:
2.5 Tracking
of Collateral for Borrowers; Asset Dispositions of Borrowers with
Lines of Credit .
All Merchandise
financed by Servicer must be serialized via the Aaron’s
Proprietary System for appropriate reconciliation of Advances and
receipt of Merchandise and for purposes of
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