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Speidel assets sold for $1.65 million

By Michelle Graff
August 18, 2009

Providence, R.I.--A Rhode Island court has approved the sale of struggling watch and jewelry manufacturer Speidel LLC to private equity firm Cerce Capital LLC, court documents show.

According to documents filed on Friday in Rhode Island Superior Court, Cerce Capital purchased certain assets of Speidel "free and clear of liens and encumbrances" for about $1.65 million.

According to a report in The Providence Journal, Cerce Capital's attorney Joseph Ferrucci said Cerce plans to "rebuild" Speidel as a jewelry manufacturer and hire back as many employees as possible.

Neither Ferrucci nor Gennaro Cerce, principal of Cerce Capital, along with his sister Lynnemarie Cerce, could immediately be reached for comment on the report.

Rick Land, an attorney with Winograd, Shine and Zacks PC who was involved in the case, confirmed that the sale closed on Friday following the court's approval, and added that the sale did not include certain inventory of German watchband-maker Di-Modell, which is currently the subject of dispute, or watchbands belonging to Timex, which opted to buy back its watchbands.

Cranston, R.I.-based Speidel, purchased by jewelry industry veteran Frederick N. Levinger in 2007, had been in the jewelry manufacturing business for 105 years.

Like so many other companies, the manufacturer started to see its business go south along with the economy.

In July, struggling Speidel was placed into receivership, a form of bankruptcy in which a court-appointed receiver takes over the company to handle its assets and financial affairs. Allan Shine, also an attorney with Winograd, Shine and Zacks PC, was appointed as receiver in this case.

Aiding the siblings in this business venture will be their father, Gerald Cerce, a Rhode Island businessman whose company invests in mid-sized manufacturing businesses, and which once pioneered the turnaround of a costume-jewelry manufacturer, according to the Journal.

Not included in the sale approved on Friday was the retail store Providence Watch Hospital LLC, a fine-jewelry retailer and watch-repair shop with stores in Cranston and Wakefield, R.I., which Levinger also owned.

Land confirmed that Shine has asked the court to approve the sale of Providence Watch Hospital to Evan Saltzman, a relative of the store's founder Joseph Saltzman, for $53,000 on Aug. 26. He said the sale includes only fixtures and equipment, not inventory.

A liquidation sale for the inventory--which does not include any watches that have been dropped off for repair--at Providence Watch Hospital's two locations is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 28, 29 and 30, Land said.

As for the watches in for repair, Land said the intention is for the buyer of the non-inventory assets to arrange with the watches' owners to either repair and return them or simply return them. This will occur sometime in September following the closing of the sale.
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