NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) – High-end department store conglomerate Saks Global filed for bankruptcy protection late on Tuesday in one of the largest retail collapses since the pandemic, barely a year after a deal that brought Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus under the same roof.
The move cast uncertainty over the future of U.S. luxury fashion, though the retailer said early on Wednesday its stores would remain open for now after it finalized a $1.75 billion financing package and appointed a new chief executive. Former CEO of Neiman Marcus department store chain Geoffroy van Raemdonck will replace Richard Baker, who was the architect of the acquisition strategy that saddled Saks Global with debt.
The company also appointed former Neiman Marcus executives Darcy Penick and Lana Todorovich as chief commercial officer and chief of global brand partnerships at Saks Global, respectively.
Saks Global estimated in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas, that its assets and liabilities were in a range of $1 billion to $10 billion.
The court process is meant to give the luxury retailer room to negotiate a debt restructuring with creditors or find a new owner. Failing that, the company may be forced to shutter.
A retailer long loved by the rich and famous, from Gary Cooper to Grace Kelly, Saks fell on hard times after the COVID pandemic, as competition from online outlets rose, and brands started selling more items through their own stores.
The original Saks Fifth Avenue store, known for carrying exclusive brands like Chanel, Cucinelli and Burberry and its Christmas light shows, was opened by retail pioneer Andrew Saks in 1867.
Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Financing Deal
The new financing deal would provide an immediate cash infusion of $1 billion through a debtor-in-possession loan from an investor group, Saks Global said. Reuters earlier reported the loan was led by Pentwater Capital Management in Naples, Florida, and Boston-based Bracebridge Capital.
Financing worth $240 million would be available through an asset-backed loan provided by the company’s asset-based lenders, according to the company.
The luxury retailer will have access to $500 million of financing from the investor group once it successfully exits bankruptcy protection, expected later this year, Saks Global said.
It asked the court to delay the submission of the group’s financial statements by 45 days to March 13, 2026.
Several luxury brands were among the unsecured creditors, led by Chanel, with about $136 million, and Gucci owner Kering with $60 million, the court filing said. The world’s biggest luxury conglomerate, LVMH, was listed as an unsecured creditor at $26 million. In total, Saks Global estimated there were between 10,001 and 25,000 creditors.
Paris-based Kering, which also owns such brands as Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, declined to comment.
Chanel, LVMH and Richemont did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2024, Baker masterminded the takeover of Neiman Marcus by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co, which had owned Saks since 2013, and later spun off the U.S. luxury assets to create Saks Global, bringing together three names that have defined American high fashion for over a century. That $2.7 billion deal was built on about $2 billion in debt financing and equity contributions from investors including Amazon, Salesforce and Authentic Brands, which were listed in the court filing as equity investors in Saks Global.
Neiman Marcus Deal Added Debt
The Neiman Marcus deal was designed to create a luxury powerhouse, but it saddled Saks Global with debt at a time when global luxury sales were slowing. Saks Global struggled last year to pay vendors, who began withholding inventory. The thinly stocked shelves may have driven shoppers away to rivals like Bloomingdale’s, which reported strong sales in 2025, compounding pressure on Saks Global.
“Rich people are still buying,” Morningstar analyst David Swartz said last month, “just not so much at Saks.”
Running out of cash, Saks Global last month sold the real estate of the Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills flagship store for an undisclosed amount. It had also been looking to sell a minority stake in exclusive department store Bergdorf Goodman to help cut debt.
On December 30, it failed to make an interest payment of more than $100 million to bondholders.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah, Shubham Kalia, Juveria Tabassum, Anuja Bharat Mistry, Sanskriti Shekhar and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru and Nicholas P. Brown and Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Peter Henderson, Lisa Jucca, Jamie Freed and Tomasz Janowski)
