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A US bankruptcy court judge said at a hearing on Thursday that he intended to allow Sears to hold closing sales in 142 unprofitable stores.
Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, has announced its intention to close these institutions shortly after seeking Chapter 11 protection from bankruptcy last week as part of its plan to reorganize its business around a year. smaller group of profitable stores.
A Sears stores in Joliet and Kmart stores in Moline, Quincy and Norridge are on the list of stores where closing sales are expected to begin shortly and be completed by the end of the year. Sears declined to comment Thursday on the sales schedule.
Several Sears owners and suppliers have raised objections to a first version of the retailer's liquidation sale plans. Five companies, including shopping center owners in the Chicago area, Macerich and Centennial Real Estate, told the court they did not want Sears to announce sales with neon signs, balloons, tires, sandwiches, gyrophages or leaflets.
They also asked for limits on the number and size of signs placed in stores or their windows and asked that signs do not use phrases such as "cessation of business", "bankruptcy sale" Or "everything must go away," according to a previous court record. this week.
None of the Macerich or Centennial malls in the Chicago area have Sears or Kmart stores.
Sunny Singh, a lawyer representing Sears, told Justice Robert Drain that he thought the issues raised had been resolved. A revised order filed Thursday in bankruptcy court allows homeowners to negotiate individual agreements amending closing sale plans.
Additional closures could follow. Sears announced last week its plans to reduce its brick and mortar footprint from the current 687 stores to approximately 400 profitable stores. The company has announced plans to evaluate other sites to determine if they can be profitable.
Sears also decided to postpone the scheduled hearing for next week, which sought to seek additional financing from the debtor-operator.
The company, which received $ 300 million in funding to continue operating the business while trying to restructure, announced last week that it has negotiated $ 300 million of additional financing from the hedge fund. managed by its president and former CEO, Edward Lampert.
Sears has contacted other potential lenders and has decided to push back the audience because the company had achieved better results than expected last week and "does not face a significant liquidity need at the moment", Singh said to Drain.
Twitter @laurenzumbach
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