Sears Holdings Corp. (fka SHLDQ)

[dragon52]

The rest of the story con't...

"As the only bidder that planned to keep Sears operating, Mr. Lampert had positioned himself as a savior, preserving 45,000 jobs and honoring contracts with thousands of vendors.

But lawyers for the creditors committee warned that Mr. Lampert’s plan includes hundreds of millions of dollars of asset sales, which could result in substantial job cuts anyway."

Note - Lampert was the ONLY Bidder. Meaning, anyone could have thrown their hat into the ring, but didn't. So now because of that, Lampert not only foiled the Creditors but won the bid.

The second paragraph alludes to the other post where 425 profitable stores were identified, but the 275 non-profitable stores were never mentioned though they were also part of this BK filing.

True, that Lampert's plan includes MILLIONS of DOLLARS in asset sales, but what they didn't say was the sales would be from the non-profitable stores, So the creditors are crying foul now, since they will get their pennies on the dollar as they wished but in smaller and slower chunks, rather than one quick liquidation... Giving Lampert the opportunity to actually pay off the debts will the asset sale. Note the "which could" result... is more like "will result" since those stores that were non-profitable will be sold anyway. Not every employee that is being laid off will be given an option to relocate, and maybe none will be.

The fact is, creditors lost this round and Lampert did not become a billionaire by being stupid and money did not fall from the sky unto him.

Again, he (Lampert) was backed into a corner, since there were no other bidders and he was in dire straits of losing his entire stake in SHLD, if he did nothing to keep it from going into the wrong hands and figured the best hands were his.

Imagine if he did nothing. Creditors would swoop in, liquidate ALL the stores and assets taking no prisoners, leaving nothing left... Lampert and ESL stake in SHLD would be worth zero...ZERO. Remmber common stock holders get paid last in majority of the Bankruptcies, since they are last in line after ALL creditors.

Creditors were chomping at the bit, until Lampert stepped up the game... but the problem was no one took his bid seriously and thought the judge would deny his claim. They obviously were wrong.

Whether Lampert keeps Sears running or liquidates by selling it off, you can bet that he will get his money back and bring valuation to the company and shareholders before letting it go...

The saga continues...



https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/business/sears-bankruptcy-lampert.html