Sears admits future in ‘doubt’

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NICK TURNER AND LAUREN COLEMANLOCHNER

suffered its worst stock decline in more than two years after acknowledging “substantial doubt” about its future, raising fresh concerns about the survival of a company that was once the world’s largest retailer.

Sears added so-called going-concern language to its latest annual report filing, suggesting that weak earnings have cast a pall on its ability to keep operating. The 131-year-old department-store chain, which has lost more than $10 billion in recent years, was cited last year by Fitch Ratings as a company carrying a high risk of defaulting.

“They’ve got all kinds of issues,” said Noel Hebert, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Though the company has enough cash to get through 2017, there are plenty of troubling signs, he said. Its declining payablesto-inventory ratio, for instance, shows that vendors have been increasingly reluctant to keep the retailer stocked.

Sears’s forewarning comes after more optimistic signs from the company, which has been working on a turnaround under chief executive officer Eddie Lampert. Sears posted a narrower loss than predicted in the fourth quarter, and it has pledged to lower its debt burden and cut annual expenses by at least $1 billion.

That upbeat assessment helped propel the stock in recent weeks. The shares had gained more than 60 per cent since Feb. 9.

That rally fizzled with Tuesday’s filing, sending Sears’s stock down as much as 16 per cent to $7.60 in New York trading. It was the biggest intraday drop since October 2014.

“Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the Hoffman Estates, Illinoisbased chain said. But the retailer added that its comeback plan may help alleviate the concerns, “satisfying our estimated liquidity needs 12 months from the issuance of the financial statements.”

Lampert, a hedge fund manager who is also Sears’s biggest investor, aims to reduce debt and pension obligations by $1.5 billion. The CEO has helped keep the ailing retailer afloat by offering more than $1 billion of assistance, including a $500 million loan facility announced