Chicago & Midwest + Retail | January 17, 2019

Lampert Prevails in Bankruptcy Auction for Sears

Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert has won a bankruptcy auction for the beleaguered retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lampert’s $5.3-billion bid to keep Sears’ remaining 400 stores open must still be approved by the federal judge presiding over Sears’ bankruptcy case.

Lampert, who is Sears’ biggest shareholder and largest creditor, prevailed by sweetening his offer to about $5.3 billion from $4.4 billion over several weeks of negotiations, the WSJ reported.

The offer beat out a bid by Abacus Advisory Group LLC to close all the stores and sell the inventory, a course of action that reportedly was supported by most of Sears’ creditors and landlords.

Analysts questioned Sears’ long-term viability, even with Lampert’s rescue plan. “In our view, Sears exits this process with almost as many problems as it had when it entered bankruptcy protection,” wrote Global Data Retail’s Neil Saunders.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).