Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made a $68 million bid to purchase the summer time camp his youngsters attended.
Zaslav’s Grandview Ventures reached a cope with Simad Holdings to supply the stalking horse bid for Camp Mohawk in Westchester County. Camp Mohawk’s father or mother firm Simad Holdings filed for chapter in June after it defaulted on funds to its Israeli bondholders.
“This can be a private household funding that displays our lifelong perception that summer time camp is usually a fantastic half of a kid’s progress, and Mohawk’s historical past as a profitable camp expertise for therefore many youngsters, together with our personal,” a spokesperson for Warner Bros stated in an announcement. Zaslav’s three youngsters are actually adults.
Bloomberg Law first reported on Zaslav’s supply.
Simad, based by David and Michael Shabsels, owned 30 standard U.S. summer time camps, together with Camp Mohawk and Camp Blue Star. In late Might, Simad revealed it might default on debt funds on $214 million of bonds in Israel. Simad additional revealed that the Shabselses had diverted $34 million to firms they managed. A month later, Simad and different Shabselses-controlled firms filed for chapter. As a part of the chapter, the Shabselses handed over management of their firms to a restructuring officer.
Simad is now within the midst of promoting its camps to repay its lengthy listing of collectors.
Mohawk is probably the most invaluable and worthwhile of Simad’s 30 summer time camps. An appraiser valued the camp at $85.8 million in a December 2025 appraisal. The camp had a projected income of $22.85 million for 2026.
As a stalking horse, Zaslav’s bid units the ground value for the camp. Different bidders can submit larger bids in an public sale. Bidders have till July 20 to file an objection to Zaslav’s choice because the stalking horse bidder. The chapter court docket would nonetheless have to approve any profitable bid.
The restructuring officer and attorneys answerable for Simad are transferring quick. Final week, Simad agreed to promote Camp Achim, a Jewish summer time camp within the Catskills, to the present camp operator for $7 million, a slight enhance from the camp’s appraised worth of $6.3 million. The deal nonetheless awaits approval from the chapter court docket.
The gross sales costs give a sign of the restoration collectors can anticipate to obtain. If the camps promote for near the appraised values, Simad’s secured collectors ought to get repaid. Appraisal firm Leitner Berman valued Simad’s camps at $466 million in December 2025, considerably greater than the quantity owed to secured collectors of $344 million. Simad, via the Shabselses, additionally took on over $100 million in high-interest service provider money advance loans. However these lenders are listed as unsecured collectors and are unlikely to be paid again.
Mohawk consists of a day camp and a college often called Camp Mohawk Day Camp and Nation Day College. The White Plains, New York, camp was based in 1930.
Simad not too long ago secured $60 million in debtor-in-possession financing to permit its camps to function for the summer time session.
Zaslav is searching for to purchase Mohawk amid Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. This week, a dozen state attorneys basic sued Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery to cease the deal over antitrust considerations.
Learn extra
“They loved debt”: How the Shabselses’ play to leverage a half-billion-dollar summer camp empire spiraled into bankruptcy
David and Michael Shabsels’ summer camp empire files for bankruptcy
