Retail Dive updated their schadenfreude-adjacent, angst-inducing “10 retailers at risk of bankruptcy” list this week.
So far in 2018, six major retailers have filed for bankruptcy — Rockport, Nine West, Claire’s, The Walking Company, Bon-Ton, Kiko USA and A’gaci — and though, as the story notes, “a lull in filings and credit defaults has come in the middle of the year,” it still doesn’t make any outstanding debt obligations any less daunting. And holy shit is there some outstanding debt among this crowd.
Ranked based on what the risk prediction service CreditRiskMonitor calls a FRISK Score — which combines financial ratios, bond ratings, models and aggregated data patterns to “estimate the risk of a company filing for bankruptcy within 12 months” — each company included is facing a litany of troubles.
Occupying the top spot (again) is J. Crew, who incurred net losses of $125 million in 2017 and is performing even worse this year. Basically, Madewell is the only thing keeping them alive at this point.
Neiman Marcus is ranked second. They hold nearly $5 billion in debt and a total liquidity of $842 million, a disparity that probably can’t be reconciled. Luckily for them (I guess), that debt doesn’t mature until 2020 and 2021, so they have two years to try and figure something out.
Behind them is J.C. Penney, whose decision to close a number of stores backfired and who also carry “a total debt load of about $4.2 billion.”
Sears, Bebe, GNC, Pier 1, 99 Cents Only Stores, Fred’s and Office Depot round out the rest of the list.
So, even though the fallout from the retail apocalypse has slowed, things are by no means rosy.
You can read more about it at Retail Dive.
