As the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) quickly ran out of cash, a notable amount of that money ended up going to publicly traded companies.
A new study from Morgan Stanley (as reported by CNBC) finds that at least 75 public companies pocketed $243 million from the program. That occurred because of a loophole that let some businesses treat separate locations of the same chain as individual businesses. A separate report from the Associated Press found 75 publicly traded companies received $365 million in small-business loans.
Some companies, such as Shake Shack, have returned all of the loan money. But that group, so far, makes up a small percentage of the public companies that received PPP funds.
The PPP is a $349 billion program meant to help mom-and-pop businesses stay afloat, so recent revelations that public companies dipped into that fund has caused outrage among the small-business community and many “buy local” advocates. A second small-business relief bill, providing another $310 billion, was approved late Tuesday.
The Morgan Stanley report listed several businesses that received PPP funds. Among those, restaurant holding companies J. Alexander’s (whose restaurants include J. Alexander’s, Stoney River, Redlands Grill, and Lyndhurst Grill) and Fiesta Restaurant Group (Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana); smartphone screen-protector maker ZAGG; and adventure cruise company Lindblad Expeditions.
Here’s a breakdown of some of those businesses by amount received:
$10 million+
J. Alexander’s Holdings – $15.1 million
$10 million–$7 million
Fiesta Restaurant Group – $10 million
Quantum Corp. – $10 million
Potbelly – $10 million
Hallador Energy – $10 million
Broadwind Energy – $9.5 million
ZAGG – $9.4 million
Air T – $8.2 million
Wave Life Sciences – $7.2 million
$7 million–$5 million
DMC Global – $6.7 million
Lindblad Expeditions – $6.6 million
Legacy Housing – $6.5 million
Misonix – $5.2 million
Digimarc – $5 million
New Age Beverages – $6.9 million
Escalade – $5.6 million
Veritone – $6.5 million
Frequency Electronics – $5 million
Kura Sushi – $6 million
Perma-Fix Environmental – $5.7 million
Protech Home Medical – $6 million
SIFCO Industries – $5 million
TSR – $6.7 million
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