You might think that American Apparel would thrive in the recession, with their affordable clothes and dirtbag-embracing ads. But you'd be wrong, since an investor just rescued them from defaulting on a loan.

A private equity firm called Lion Capital just bought a 20% stake in AA for $80 million, and congrats to them for finding an investor in the year 2009. But the majority of that money is going right back out the door, to pay off loans from a firm owned by Michael Dell—including $16 million due later this month that AA was in danger of defaulting on:

American Apparel will use the proceeds of the sale to meet the payment due to Mr. Dell on Friday as well as $35 million of additional debt owed to him, The Times said. Under the terms of the deal, Lions Capital, based in London, will receive warrants for 16 million new shares with a strike price of $2 a share, accordin to the report.

$2 a share being what AA's stock is at right now, conveniently, bouncing up a full 33% since the end of the day yesterday. Investors are great! This should be a big relief for AA's finance chief, who said the company "almost went bankrupt" right before Christmas.
[Dealbook; Pic via Adrants]

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.