The Wall Street Journal - Drained by the worst consumer-spending slump in decades and burdened by debt, U.S. retailers are expected to begin a wave of post-holiday bankruptcy filings, altering the landscape at malls and on main streets across the country.
Retailers are particularly vulnerable in the current downturn after a decade of buoyant consumer spending, which encouraged them to overexpand and overborrow. Now, the banks and private investors who financed the boom are pulling back.
Several of the industry's biggest lenders, including General Electric Co.'s GE Capital, CIT Group Inc. and Wachovia Corp., are tightening lending terms and reducing exposure to retailers. Their tougher terms are making it harder for retailers to find capital to reorganize under bankruptcy-court protection, as they were able to do in the past, meaning there are likely to be more liquidations.
Circuit City Stores Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 protection in November, warned Friday that it risked liquidation if talks with two parties about a possible sale or cash infusion, weren't successful. Earlier last week, Goody's Family Clothing Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., announced it was liquidating its remaining 287 stores -- just three months after exiting bankruptcy. Last Monday, Against All Odds USA, a 64-store clothing chain based in New Jersey, said it was entering Chapter 11 proceedings in hopes of selling itself or reorganizing.
According to ratings company Standard & Poor's, nine U.S. retailers and restaurants, including off-price apparel chain Loehmann's Holdings Inc., drugstore operator Duane Reade Holdings Inc. and jeweler Finlay Enterprises Inc. are at significant risk of default, with junk-bond ratings of CCC, or "very weak." A year ago, S&P had six issuers on its list, including three that eventually filed for Chapter 11 protection: Linens 'N Things Inc., Vicorp Restaurants Inc. and Buffets Inc.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123171955382272193.html
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