Sears Holding , once a bustling retail chain in the U.S., might be preparing its bankruptcy filing, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
According to the report, the company has hired the services of M-III Partners to navigate the bankruptcy proceedings, as the retail giant is saddled with $134 million debt due on Oct. 15. Sears has had troubles meeting its debt obligations for a while, even as CEO Eddie Lampert drove several asset liquidations.
Hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores were shuttered down in recent years, amid plunging sales. As of latest quarter, the company has roughly 900 Sears and Kmart stores, compared with more than 4,000 when it merged with Kmart in 2005. Sears has apparently failed to catch up with the e-commerce boom spearheaded by Amazon coupled with traditional player Walmart’s expansion. According to some analysts, the company would need to generate more than $1 billion a year to keep operating - a target that looks too far off for the retailer to meet. Sears has burned through $1.8 billion in cash in its operations during 2017 alone.
Its CEO Eddie Lampert has, over time, tried to salvage the company by chipping in more than $1 billion into the retailer when other sources dried up. This time, if Lampert or other sources are unable to extricate Sears out of its debt troubles and dwindling business, the company could file for a bankruptcy this week, as some reports seem to suggest.