ST. LOUIS—Refractive surgery firm TLC Vision (OTC: TLCVQ.PK) has signed an agreement with affiliates of a fund managed by private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners designed to bring TLC Vision out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Under their agreement, the Charlesbank fund has commited to provide TLC Vision with up to $134.4 million in funding, subject to its ongoing Chapter 11 proceedings, in return for taking over virtually all the company’s assets, including all the equity of TLC Vision USA as well as its six refractive centers in Canada.

As part of the $134.4 million in that agreement, Boston-based Charlesbank agreed to provide $25 million in debtor-in-possession financing that TLC Vision said would result in payment in full of all outstanding amounts owed to its senior secured lenders and under its current debtor-in-possession financing.

The agreement is subject to approval by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, in which TLC Vision filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 21. The company was also recently delisted by the Nasdaq stock exchange for failing to meet the exchange’s required minimum stock price and valuation.

Said TLC Vision’s president and chief operating officer, Jim Tiffany, “Charlesbank is committed to helping us grow our business and has made a significant funding commitment that will allow us to emerge from our Chapter 11 filing with a strong competitive advantage, including the retention of our Canadian centers.” (At the time of its bankruptcy filing, the company had said it would sell its centers in Canada.) He noted that upon closing of the transaction, TLC Vision would “pay in full over $100 million of existing secured debt and emerge from Chapter 11 with a substantially de-levered balance sheet.”

Added Tiffany, “Clinical care for patients has continued without change or interruption since the [Chapter 11] filing and will continue without change under the new plan...It has been and will continue to be ‘business as usual’ at TLC.”