Sears (SHLD, $1.27) Searing in Debt and Cash Problems, CEO Gives Warning

Sears CEO has warned the company to take action before its mounting debt and constraints in cash get out of hand.

The retail company has $134 million in debt payments due October 15, according to CEO Eddie Lampert, who controls most of the company's shares through his hedge fund. Lampert is suggesting that Sears sells off $1.75 billion in non-real estate assets and $1.5 billion in real estate assets to pay off its debts. He also proposes a restructuring plan for $1.1 billion of the debt, and is trying to get creditors to accept either 25 cents on the dollar for what they are owed or Sears equity in exchange. Lambert implored the company’s Board on Monday to take care of the substantial near-term cash constraints “without delay."

Sears has been hurting from $11.7 billion in losses since 2010, alongwith a 60% drop in sales during the same period. The company said in a statement that it is pursuing Lampert's proposals, with the advice of legal and financial advisers. However, it could not make any guarantees.

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Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.