Sears receives $ 4.6B bid to buy chain from bankruptcy
Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert's hedge fund on Thursday sent a bid of $ 4.6 billion to buy the bankruptcy dealer, according to a report in Thursday.
Hedge Fund, ESL Partners, has requested to purchase Sears' 500 remaining stores and $ 1.8 billion in the chain's inventory, credit card and pharmacy card. The offer includes $ 950 million in cash through an asset-based loan facility and a $ 1.8 billion credit bid. Lampert would also take on an estimated $ 1.1 billion in debt and other obligations.
"Sears is an iconic luminaire in American retail and we continue to believe in the company's huge potential to develop and profitably as a retail trade with a new capitalization and organizational structure," Lampert wrote in a letter describing the offer.
After years of disappointing sales and declining retail traffic, Sears sent bankruptcy in Chapter 1[ads1]1 in October, saying that it would close 142 underperforming retail outlets. Lampert retired as CEO when the bankruptcy proceedings were announced but remained the company's manager and expected to submit an offer to buy the chain through the hedge fund. He is also Sears largest investor.
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If the bid is approved, Lampert said that a revised Sears business plan would focus on "a large-size rights and large-scale retail network, digital assets and interdependence operational businesses." A successful bid would keep the job of 50,000 Sears employees, he added.
Sears met on December 15 to find a bidder for the remaining stores. Additional bids will trigger an auction in January.
