Still trying to hold on Lampert helps bankroll Sears as woes persist after bankruptcy: sources

U.S. retailer Sears has borrowed about $150 million from lenders, including its billionaire owner Eddie Lampert, as it racks up losses less than a year after it emerged from bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter said.

The new financing will help stock Sears’ store shelves for the holiday shopping season, as it struggles to become profitable. Lampert is no stranger to bankrolling Sears, having extended loans through his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc to the department store chain over the past decade until its financial collapse last year.

The new financing is backed by assets that include Sears’ real estate and intellectual property, the sources said. The funds are less than the roughly $200 million Sears originally sought, the sources added.

Sears was unable to borrow as much as it wanted because lenders were concerned about the 126-year-old company’s prospects and financial wherewithal, according to the sources.

Among those that provided the financing was hedge fund Cyrus Capital Partners LP, which extended a loan to the retailer while it navigated bankruptcy court last year, one of the sources said. Sears is still hoping to negotiate with lenders and secure the roughly $200 million, one of the sources said.

The sources requested anonymity because the matter is confidential. A spokesman for Sears did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ESL and Cyrus declined to comment.

Sears filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2018 after losing billions of dollars in the face of competition from the likes of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc .

Lampert, formerly the company’s chairman and CEO, had pledged to restore Sears to its glory days, when it owned the tallest building in the world and companies that included a radio station and Allstate insurance.

Sears dates back to the late 1880s and its mail-order catalogues with merchandise from toys, medicine and gramophones to automobiles, kit houses and tombstones made it the Amazon of its time.