Wickes price nearly $17 million
Real estate to be auctioned later
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 28, 2008
WHEELING, Ill. — A group of liquidators were set pay nearly $17 million as the highest bidder at the Wickes Furniture bankruptcy auction earlier this week, a move expected to lead to the closing of the Top 100 chain.
Winning bidders were Hilco Merchant Resources, SB Capital, Tiger Capital and Planned Furniture Promotions, confirmed Roy Hester, vice president of sales for Planned Furniture Promotions.
He said the plan is to liquidate the 43-store chain, but declined additional comment.
Sources familiar with the bid said that if the sale is approved by the bankruptcy court Thursday, the Hilco-led group would pay 50.25% on the cost of Wickes inventory, which is valued at about $33 million, as well as $360,000 for the right to augment the sale with additional stock. That would put the price tag for the inventory and the right to augment at about $16.9 million, although the deal is still being fine-tuned.
After reaching a certain level of profit, the liquidators would share any additional profits with the estate, sources said.
Action on the disposition of Wickes real estate will be held later, with the bidding process expected to begin in the next week or so, said Doug Jermyn, co-chairman of Wickes’ unsecured creditors committee and credit manager at Legacy Classic Furniture.
Jermyn said the committee is pleased that the real estate portion will be handled separately “to hopefully maximize the value of the estate and the return for the unsecured creditors.”
Wickes, which operates stores in greater Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 3 after a failed attempt to get suppliers to defer past-due debt payments and after parent Sun Capital Partners cut off funding.
Check back with furnituretoday.com for updates to this story.
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Wickes price nearly $17 million
Feb 29, 2008 -
Wickes liquidation set
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