by David Bodamer November 3rd, 2008
National liquidators Hudson Capital Partners and Tiger Capital have bought struggling electronics chain Tweeter, and the Canton merchant will likely be shuttered in the next four to six weeks, according to store employees.
A liquidation sale on the merchandise is underway, and the company will stop its installation services on Nov. 14th.
Tweeter’s assets were purchased by the New York investment firm Schultze Asset Management in July 2007 for $38 million after Tweeter initially filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Schultze, which continued to operate Tweeter’s roughly 100 stores, declined to comment. Jim Schaye, president of Hudson Capital Partners in Newton, confirmed the liquidation of Tweeter.
Link.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer November 3rd, 2008
Circuit City is closing 155 stores. The chain will begin shuttering locations almost immediately and won’t even wait to see how the holiday shopping season goes. That’s a bit of an ominous sign.
Circuit City Stores Inc. said Monday it is pulling the plug on about 20 percent of its U.S. stores in an effort to return the nation’s No. 2 consumer electronics retailer to profitability.
The Richmond, Va.-based company said it will shutter 155 of its more than 700 stores in 55 markets, including Phoenix and Atlanta, by Dec. 31, laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force. Circuit City also said it will further reduce new store openings and plans to work with landlords to renegotiate leases, lower rent or terminate agreements.
The company said it expects the stores it is shuttering, which generated about $1.4 billion in net sales in fiscal 2008, will not open on Tuesday and store closing sales will begin on Wednesday.
Link.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer November 2nd, 2008
General Growth Properties (GGP), the Chicago-based company that’s the nation’s second-largest owner of shopping malls, is almost literally worth nothing. It’s debt totals $24 billion, much of it loaded onto the balance sheet with its 2004 purchase of a major competitor, Rouse. And $24 billion is almost exactly what the company says its malls are worth, an implausible figure given that anything the company sells now carries the scent of desperation.
But it must sell assets or take on partners, diluting shareholder stakes, if it is to survive. Its recent history of how the founding Bucksbaum family let the company spin wildly out of control is a cautionary tale of how debt can consume a company. General Growth was more than its name. It describes its damnation.
Chairman John Bucksbaum and his former chief financial officer, Bernard Freibaum, thought the debt markets would stay forever friendly and they could refinance and change terms at will. Bucksbaum never imagined that there could be a freezing of the credit markets, or that the situation would get so bad as to imperil consumer spending, the source of GGP wealth.
Link.
(Hat tip Dirt Lawyer’s Blog.)
Here are some links to older stories for reference:
- October 17, Management Changes at GGP
- October 15, Margin Calls Hit Two More Retail REITs
- October 7, General Growth Near Bankruptcy?
- October 3, General Growth CFO Steps Down; Company Suspends Dividend
- October 2, GGP Under Fire for Inclusion on Short-Sell Ban List
- October 1, Could General Growth Be Sold?
- September 23, Short Selling Banned on General Growth
- September 22, General Growth Strikes Back
- September 16, General Growth Offers More Recourse
- August 12, Another Look at GGP’s Debt
- August 6, Analysis of GGP’s Debt
- July 25, Stories With Bigger Implications?
- July 14, GGP Lines Up New Financing
- April 16, GGP’s Growing Debt Problem
Related Topics: Finance, News, REITs, Retail Real Estate |
