Greg Lindberg Says Commissioner Causey's Lawsuit Harms the Very Policyholders Causey Was Elected to Protect

DURHAM, N.C., Jan. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing his politically motivated attacks on Greg Lindberg and his companies, the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) Commissioner filed a financially irresponsible lawsuit against Greg Lindberg and certain of his companies on October 1^st, 2019.  Parts of the lawsuit were only recently unsealed. The lawsuit alleges a breach of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Mr. Lindberg and the NCDOI on June 27^th, 2019.

Mr. Causey ordered his lawyers to commence litigation against Mr. Lindberg's group of companies just 93 days after signing the MOU and a separate 10-year financing agreement designed to "maximize the long-term equity value" of Mr. Lindberg's companies. 

The litigation is filled with inaccurate and reckless allegations and disregards the interests of the policyholders who rely on Mr. Lindberg's companies to service their debts. The filing of litigation against Mr. Lindberg's companies reveals the lengths that Commissioner Causey will go to undermine Lindberg's companies – at the expense of the very policyholders Causey was elected to protect. 

The litigation is particularly egregious and deceitful given that Mr. Lindberg's companies are not in default on any of their loans to the Plaintiffs and liquidity is strong. Global Growth's non-insurance companies have over $100 million of cash on hand and Global Growth's insurance companies have total cash and cash equivalents of over $1.4 billion.

In response to this litigation, Lindberg commented: "I am acutely aware that the false accusations against me have hurt every one of the 8,500 people who work for Global Growth by hindering our access to credit markets, harming our brand, slowing down our acquisitions, and costing us tens of millions of dollars of unnecessary legal fees and other expenses. Careers have been sidelined and families hurt by the malicious and politically motivated attacks upon our businesses."

Lindberg further said, "These deceitful and malicious attacks on our businesses and me have also harmed the thousands of policyholders who rely on our companies to service their debt to our insurance companies. Refinancing efforts have been sidelined and customers have been lost – all because of Mr. Causey's determination to extract retribution on our group of companies because I was not on his team during the 2016 election."

Mr. Lindberg's attorneys have said in court filings in other actions that "it's vital that defense counsel know if Mr. Causey's motivation in undermining Mr. Lindberg was the fact that, as Mr. Causey has said publicly, Mr. Lindberg "was a man that was not on my team when I was running," and "[h]e was a major fundraiser for my opponent." The defense should know if Mr. Causey's political vendetta against Mr. Lindberg was Mr. Causey's primary motive in inducing the Government to investigate Lindberg."

Despite Mr. Causey's politically motivated attacks on Mr. Lindberg's business, the Global Growth group of companies remains financially sound.  Global Growth's main non-insurance holding company, Academy Association, Inc. made $77 million in net income in 2018 on tax basis, and Global Growth's main insurance holding company, GBIG Holdings, Inc., made $62 million in net income in 2018 on a tax basis.

This year Global Growth's businesses in aggregate are forecasting close to $300 million in cash flow across all companies on approximately $1.4 billion in revenue. Total cash projected to pay senior debt service is approximately $121 million this year, for a forecasted cash pay senior debt interest coverage ratio of close to 2.5x to 1, a level comparable to BB and B corporate bond issuers in today's market.

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SOURCE Greg Lindberg