January 06, 2019 08:01 PM UPDATED AN HOUR AGO Sears preps for possible liquidation as Lampert bid fails The iconic retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after meetings Friday in which its advisers weighed the merits of a $4.4 billion bid to buy Sears as a going concern, sources say. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Sears Holdings Corp. is preparing a potential wind down after Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid to buy several hundred stores out of bankruptcy fell short of bankers’ qualifications, people with knowledge of the matter said. The iconic retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after meetings Friday in which its advisers weighed the merits of a $4.4 billion bid by Lampert’s hedge fund to buy Sears as a going concern, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. If the 125-year-old retailer does die in bankruptcy — like Toys “R” Us in 2018, and Borders Group Inc. in 2011 — it would mark the largest fatality yet in the retail apocalypse prompted by a shift to online shopping. While Lampert’s ESL Investments has failed to convince the bankers of the viability of its bid, it could still make last-minute improvements before a status hearing on Tuesday. Lampert also has outlined a back-up plan in which ESL would pursue the purchase of some of Sears’s parts, including real estate and intellectual property, such as its brand. Spokesmen for Sears and ESL declined to comment, as did a representative for Lazard Freres & Co., which is advising Sears. SHORTCOMINGS The retailer, which includes its namesake department-stores and the Kmart chain, entered Chapter 11 protection in October with $11.34 billion in debt and a warning that it risked being relegated to the “dustbin of history” with 68,000 jobs at stake. Its filing marked the second-largest retail bankruptcy ever, according to Bloomberg Data -- just after that of real estate specialist Capmark Financial Group Inc., with $21 billion in liabilities. The third-largest, Toys “R” Us, had around $8 billion in debt. Its attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy failed. Sears has pushed forward with the hope that it could restructure with a smaller group of more profitable stores. The bid Lampert submitted in late December intended to keep 425 stores open, while preserving up to 50,000 jobs. But as representatives for the company — along with creditors and other parties — met in New York on Friday to assess the merits of the bid, they found a number of shortcomings, people with knowledge of the discussions said. STICKING POINT Gaps remained in some of the financing and the plan wouldn’t have provided enough cash to cover costs incurred in the bankruptcy, the people said. It also undervalued inventory and other assets relative to what liquidators were promising to pay. Another key sticking point: Much of Lampert’s bid rested on him getting ownership of the reorganized business in exchange for the forgiveness of $1.3 billion of debt he holds. But the validity of those very claims — racked up in a series of spinoffs, refinancings and other transactions — has already been challenged by a group of creditors. The ESL plan didn’t include a cash backstop for that part of the bid. ESL has said its liens are valid and came after the firm extended more than $2.4 billion of secured financing to keep Sears afloat. ONGOING MARKETING Sears has told real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. to continue marketing the company’ s properties and accepting open-market bids even though the deadline for those offers was Dec. 28, one of the people said. Lampert’s bid included a secondary proposal in case the going-concern offer were to fall through. It included buying selected real estate for $1.8 billion and Sears intellectual property, such as the brand name. Much of that plan would also be funded by forgiving some of the debt he holds. Earlier in the bankruptcy, creditors questioned whether transactions involving Lampert had bilked them of $2.6 billion, setting the stage for conflict over deals with the very investor who is offering to salvage the company. Lampert’s ESL said its transactions were made in good faith and on fair terms to other stakeholders.
Lampart's been milking Sears dry for years and has configured it exactly the way he wants it. He already effectively owns the company as a bondholder and has already sold all the profitable parts to other enterprises he controls, so he wins any way it works out.
Ug, just let the old Sears die already, make way for the new Sears, iSears, run by millennials. Those old Civil-War babies had their run. Teehee!
Remember the first thesis that this was Lampert’s Berkshire Hathaway and that he would give up his hedgefund and turn sears into an investment vehicle? he ruined that company. He was worse than Ackman with JCPenney.
January 08, 2019 08:25 AM UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO Lampert gets one more day to try to save Sears The company chairman must put up a $120 million deposit by tomorrow to participate in a Jan. 14 auction for the retailer Bloomberg (Bloomberg)—Eddie Lampert will get another shot at rescuing Sears Holdings from liquidation. The Sears chairman and former CEO must put up $120 million by tomorrow to get a chance to take part in an auction against other bidders, Ray Schrock, Sears’s lead attorney, said at a court hearing today. Of that amount, $17.9 million is non-refundable, he said. As many as 50,000 jobs are at stake. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to get to an auction and have a chance to save Sears as a going concern,” Schrock said. Lampert will be able to use debt he controls toward the purchase, a process known as credit bidding, Schrock said. But the company will reserve the right to review that offer and compare it to others. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said that means Lampert’s use of a credit bid has not been pre-approved. The billionaire’s $4.4 billion offer for selected stores, rejected last week, was funded partly by the conversion of debt to equity. The official committee of unsecured creditors will continue to challenge the legitimacy of the debt Lampert holds, the panel’s attorney, Abid Qureshi, told the judge. That could make it harder for Lampert to use the debt as if it were cash at an auction. Drain reminded the Sears lawyers that the company has an obligation to review all its options, not just the offer from Lampert and his hedge fund, ESL Investments. At the same time, the 126-year-old retailer is still preparing for liquidation, Schrock said. READ MORE: • Sears' biggest mistake • The irony: Lampert may have kept himself from winning Sears bid • I killed Sears, and I'm sorry. • Why Sears faltered? Check out this 1978 'secret plan' • A onetime CEO's illusory turnaround Sears, the descendant of the mail-order catalog that reshaped American commerce, filed for bankruptcy in October. Lampert and ESL Investments rank as Sears’s biggest shareholder and creditor. They held about $2.5 billion in Sears debt as of September, the result of multiple attempts to keep the chain afloat. The former CEO spent years trying to save the iconic retailer, shuttering hundreds of money-losing stores, cutting more than $1 billion in annual expenses, and spinning off units such as Lands’ End. As late as last night, the company had told involved parties it planned to announce a liquidation before the market opened today in New York, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The final push to save Sears from liquidation stretched over the weekend and into three hours of negotiations in a White Plains, N.Y., courthouse this morning. The hearing was delayed twice as about a dozen lawyers for Sears and ESL continued talks in the corridor, decorated by a large Christmas tree and a menorah, outside the courtroom. The advisers twice updated Drain in his chambers. At one point, the lawyers were talking at once and a court officer said, “Sounds like a zoo in here.” “It is a zoo!” one of the attorneys replied. It’s not the first frenzied deal Sears has made during its bankruptcy. When the company was in court Nov. 27 to finalize bankruptcy financing, a hedge fund affiliated with ESL swooped in to ignite a last-minute bidding war for the right to provide funding. “Most likely, the bid still goes nowhere,” Jared Ellias, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law, said of Lampert’s offer. “But it’s part of the dance of ‘having every last conversation.’ Liquidating an American icon is something one should do one’s best to avoid.”
Fast Eddie milked pension money, likely to feed all the stock buybacks https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...efits-for-retailers-90000-retirees/ar-BBSr5G7