Lampert would profit by keeping Sears alive

NEW YORK — As Sears teeters on the brink of collapse, one man stands at the center of the fight for the future of the iconic retailer.

Eddie Lampert plays several often-conflicting roles in what could be the final chapter for the company that began as a mail-order watch business 132 years ago.

He has been its chairman, CEO, lender and largest shareholder — all at the same time. And he stands to win big if Sears survives.

Those who are owed money by Sears and its Kmart brand are considering Lampert’s last-ditch plan to preserve 425 stores and 50,000 jobs at a bankruptcy auction.

Lampert, the only one to offer a proposal to rescue the floundering company in its entirety, has sweetened his bid for Sears to more than $5 billion and added a $120 million cash deposit through an affiliate of his ESL hedge fund. His original bid of $4.4 billion was rejected by the company’s board.

He has publicly stated he wants to save Sears, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in October, because he says he believes the company still has potential, despite his failed Lampert efforts to turn it around.

“While the opportunity I saw from the start for Sears to benefit from the disruptive changes in retail and technology has not worked out so far, it is still there to be taken,” Lampert said in a statement sent through ESL to The Associated Press.

But plenty of others think that financial gain is behind his perseverance.

He stands to realize a big tax advantage if he keeps Sears alive by using the company’s years of net operating losses to offset future taxable income if one of his other companies takes it over, said David Tawil, president and cofounder of Maglan Capital, which follows distressed companies.

Tawil and others also think Lampert wants to buy the company as a going concern so that he, as the only shareholder, can then control the liquidation of the remaining assets.