Sears moves to push back debt payment

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to extend parts of its $4.2 billion debt load, giving the retailer some breathing room in efforts to make a comeback.

The company will have another six months to repay $400 million of its $500 million secured loan facility, which was originally due in July, with the option to extend it further to July 2018, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears said in a statement Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert, who has thrown the company many lifelines before, is one of the lenders of the facility with JPP, along with Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment LLC.

Sears also said it will pass off $515 million in pension obligations to MetLife Inc., making the largest U.S. life insurer responsible for payments to about 51,000 retirees. Sears expects the deal to have an “immaterial impact” on the funded status of its total pension obligations, while reducing volatility and expenses, helping the company reach its target to cut debt and pension obligations by $1.5 billion this fiscal year.

Sears didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. MetLife didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Once the country’s largest retailer, Sears has fallen into a debt spiral, racking up more than $8 billion in red ink over the past five years amid a broader department-store slump.