SSENSE: the final stay, and $5.5 million more for the banks

On May 11, 2026, at a hearing that lasted six minutes, Justice Luc Morin of the Superior Court of Québec extended the SSENSE stay of proceedings to September 11. "This CCAA proceeding has been challenging by any measure; however, it now appears to be nearing its conclusion," the minutes read. "In practical terms, this extension should be the final stay of proceedings." The monitor had said it needed the time to finish certain transition services, collect receivables and seek a final distribution order, per the Minutes to May 11th, 2026 Hearing and Stay Extension Order, May 11, 2026, p. 2.

On September 11, Justice Morin extended the stay again, to November 13, 2026, on the monitor's application, per the Stay Extension Order, Sept. 11, 2026. The reasons given this time are the same three and two more: a seized bank account in Belgium, and to "avoid a return to Court for the sole purpose of obtaining a further extension of the stay of proceedings," per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 9, 2026, para. 54. The same day, the court authorized a second distribution to the banks.

Where the money came from

The debtors — Atallah Group Inc. and five affiliates, doing business as SSENSE, the Montréal luxury e-commerce retailer — went into CCAA in September 2025 after their lending syndicate declined to refinance. The relaunched sale process drew two binding offers in December: one from "a group comprised of the Founders and First Avenue Advisory Inc.," and one from Cettire Limited, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Jan. 14, 2026, para. 55. The monitor recommended the founders' group. Among its reasons were certainty of proceeds against a liquidation value that was "purely theoretical given that no liquidator submitted an offer in the SISP," and the continued employment of approximately 760 people, with the assumption of approximately $3.1 million in accrued vacation pay, per the Fourth Report of the Monitor, Jan. 14, 2026, paras. 63.2.1, 63.3.

The lending syndicate — Bank of Montreal as administrative agent, Royal Bank of Canada, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., Toronto Branch, National Bank of Canada, The Bank of Nova Scotia and JP Morgan SE — contested the sale and asked the court to order a liquidation instead. After a four-day contested hearing, the court approved the sale on February 4, 2026, and it closed on February 13, with the rights under the purchase agreement assigned to 17667884 Canada Inc. and the price paid to the monitor in trust, per the Application for the Issuance of a Distribution Order, Apr. 8, 2026, para. 15 and the Application for the Issuance of a Second Distribution Order and a Stay Extension Order, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 6–7. The purchase price has not been disclosed in the public record.

As of April 8, the principal owing under the syndicated facilities was $106,278,342 on the revolving facility and $28,571,428 on the term facility, per the Application for the Issuance of a Distribution Order, Apr. 8, 2026, para. 31. The first interim distribution, authorized on April 14, was $33,307,000, paid on May 1, per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 9, 2026, para. 50.

The second distribution

The monitor's application of September 8 proposed $4.5 million — "the entirety of the balance held by the Monitor less an amount to be retained by the Monitor as a reserve for the professional fees and disbursements, and other costs, that will be incurred to complete the CCAA Proceedings and the eventual bankruptcy of the Canadian Debtors." It also asked that the syndicate be allowed to sweep two blocked Bank of Montreal accounts, since the debtors cannot initiate transfers from them, per the Application for the Issuance of a Second Distribution Order and a Stay Extension Order, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 28–30. The reserve is not quantified.

The next day the number rose. "The proposed distribution amount of $5.5M (compared to the $4.5M proposed in the Application) reflects the collection of an additional tax refund of approximately $1M since the filing of the Application," per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 9, 2026, paras. 44.2, 51–52. Net cash flow for the 17 weeks to August 28 had run $1.3 million ahead of budget, with sales tax refunds above projections, and after the distribution the forecast has the estate closing November 13 with approximately $0.4 million.

The Second Distribution Order authorizes $5,500,000, "inclusive of the cash sweep," in partial repayment of the syndicate's indebtedness. It recites, as the April order did in substance, that "a substantial balance of the Lending Syndicate's indebtedness remains outstanding, and that the Lending Syndicate's indebtedness will not be repaid in full from the Sale Proceeds and the Residual Cash, such that no amount will be available for distribution to any other secured or unsecured creditors of the Debtors," per the Second Distribution Order, Sept. 11, 2026, paras. 9, 16–17. Together the two distributions come to $38,807,000.

The key employee retention plan approved with the initial order has made 91 payments totalling $2,412,000 against a $2,500,000 limit, net of a reimbursement from one person who resigned after being paid, and no further payments are to come from the reserve held back for it, per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 9, 2026, paras. 47–49.

Loose ends

The monitor's application lists what has been tidied since May. The fulfillment centre lease was disclaimed effective May 31, conditional on the purchaser signing its own lease with the landlord, which it did. Royal Bank of Canada, Investissement Québec and the purchaser fought over whether certain equipment in the fulfillment centre had been sold or remained subject to the lenders' financing and leasing rights, and settled on August 4, per the Application for the Issuance of a Second Distribution Order and a Stay Extension Order, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 13–16.

The automation system in Block A of the fulfillment centre, supplied by Dematic Limited under a 2020 master agreement to meet order-fulfillment targets "which Dematic never succeeded in implementing," had been marketed without a buyer and was found to have "a negative value, the cost of dismantling and removing the equipment exceeding any nominal scrap value." RBC and Investissement Québec agreed to transfer their interests in it to the landlord, Dream, and the monitor abandoned any claim to it. Dematic's appeal from the November 2025 judgment homologating its settlement with the debtors was dismissed with costs by the Court of Appeal of Québec on July 10, 2026, per the Application for the Issuance of a Second Distribution Order and a Stay Extension Order, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 17–21.

Two things remain open, and they are why the stay runs to November. The first is the transition services agreement: every service has ended except the enterprise resource planning systems, which the purchaser needs until October 31 to migrate purchase orders for new-season shipments. The monitor agreed on condition that the purchaser bear all the cost and that the stay run to at least November 13.

The second is in Belgium. On June 23, 2026, SPF Finances, the Belgian tax authority, served a saisie-arrêt exécution on Atallah Group EU SRL's account at HSBC; because of mail-forwarding delays the notice reached the Montréal office on August 24. In the meantime, the purchaser's accounting staff, providing transition services, had instructed FedEx to send a €375,057.57 duty-and-tax refund owed to the U.K. entity into that Belgian account, without the monitor's knowledge. It arrived on July 14, after the seizure. The account now holds approximately €390,000, and the purchaser "has acknowledged that the instructions were given to FedEx in error," per the Application for the Issuance of a Second Distribution Order and a Stay Extension Order, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 22–27. The monitor's cash flow notes remove approximately $629,000 of FedEx refund collections from its figures on that account.

When those are done, the monitor says, it will ask for a final distribution of whatever remains — including anything recovered from Belgium — together with an order terminating the CCAA proceedings, and the Canadian debtors will be put into bankruptcy, per the Eighth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 9, 2026, paras. 53–54.