Sears, the once-mighty US retailer, files for bankruptcy

• October 16 2018
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/sears-the-once-mighty-us-retailer-files-for-bankruptcy_146986

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Sears, an anchor of retail life for generations of Americans, filed for bankruptcy yesterday and said it was closing almost 150 stores, the latest marquee victim of the online era.

Founded in 1886 as a mail order catalogue company, it went on to pioneer the department store industry, selling all things to all people, and by the mid-20th century had built a vast empire that stretched across North America.

But in recent decades the company struggled in a quickly shifting retail environment, battered by competition from big-box stores and then by the meteoric rise of Amazon and other e-commerce players.

Sears Holdings Corporation, also the parent company for Kmart, which merged with Sears in 2005, said in a statement it had filed for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan.

The company had been drowning in debt exceeding US$5 billion and reportedly could not make a US$134 million payment that had been due on Monday.

S&P Global Ratings on Monday downgraded the company's debt to 'D,' calling the company's capital structure “unsustainable”. Meanwhile shares in the company had plunged 24 per cent just before 1500 GMT.

Edward Lampert, chairman of Sears Holdings, said the insolvency filing would give the company the “flexibility to strengthen its balance sheet” and enable it to accelerate a strategic transformation.