Sears CEO steps in for bankruptcy financing: report
Sears Holdings Corp CEO Eddie Lampert has reportedly stepped in to contribute towards the funding of bankruptcy proceedings.
The financing package that the retailer is expected to secure would be between $500 million and $600 million, people familiar with the situation tell Reuters.
The plan would be to give Sears a chance to escape liquidation ahead of the key holiday shopping season.
Big banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are expected to provide significant portions of the financing.
The bankruptcy filing is expected in New York early Monday, according to the report.
The sources cautioned that there was always a chance that the negotiations could collapse at the last minute.
A spokesman for Lampert declined to comment on details of the bankruptcy financing, while a Sears spokesman and spokespeople for the banks didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sears, once the largest retailer in the United States, hopes to sell stores and other assets, including its Kenmore appliances brand and home services business, in court-supervised auctions while under bankruptcy protection, sources have previously said.
Lampert, a billionaire who also runs hedge fund ESL Investments, has invested in and lent to Sears many times over the years, giving him and ESL ownership of about half the company, as well as $2.5 billion of Sears' debt.
Sears plans to close about 150 of its 700 stores in malls across the United States as soon as it files for bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday.
It intends to keep another 300 open moving forward, and place the remaining 250 under review. It is unclear how the closures would impact Sears' almost 70,000 employees.