ESL Investments was selected as the winning bidder in the court-supervised bankruptcy auction of Sears Holdings. ESL will acquire substantially all of the company’s assets for approximately $5.2 billion.
According to two Bloomberg articles, Eddie Lambert’s ESL Investments has increased its bid to purchase Sears to $5 billion and hopes to keep the bankruptcy court in its corner by maintaining more jobs than initially proposed.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ESL Investments, the hedge fund run by former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert, submitted a $4.4 billion bid to keep Sears afloat, coming in just under the wire before Friday’s filing deadline.
Reuters has reported that ESL Investments, the hedge fund run by Sears’ former CEO Eddie Lampert and the store’s largest creditor, has forwarded a $4.6 billion bid to rescue 500 Sears stores from liquidation.
Sears Holdings’ board of directors received a letter from ESL Investments, the hedge fund led by the company’s Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert, proposing to buy the company’s Kenmore appliance division, Sears Home Services and PartsDirect.
Sears Holdings has raised $100 million in new financing and is pursuing an additional $200 million. JPP, an affiliate of Sears Chairman Edward Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments,, has agented a $100 million term loan for the ailing retailer.
Sears Holdings amended its loan agreement with lenders controlled by CEO Edward Lampert to borrow an additional $100 million with the understanding it can borrow $100 million more prior to December 1, 2017.
Business Insider reported that Sears CEO Eddie Lampert, through his hedge fund ESL Investments, agreed to provide Sears with a further $200 million credit line.
Certain Sears Holdings subsidiaries entered into a $500 million committed secured loan facility provided by entities affiliated with ESL Investments, an entity controlled by Sears’ chairman and CEO.
Sears Holdings entered into a $500 million committed secured loan facility with ESL Investments and Cascade Investment. The facility together with the closing of a $750 term loan provides $1.25 billion of committed financing.