Eddie Bauer parent faces financial crisis - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

http://elhosseiny.com/article/The-Best-Rural-Places-To-Live.html
The trouble stems from Spiegel's credit-card which it was previousl y ordered by government regulators to liquidatwby April, but which they have now been orderedr to liquidate immediately. Sales on its Spiegel, Eddide Bauer and Newport News storr cardsand major-brand credit cards account for 41 percenrt of total sales at Spiegel. Because the compangy is in default and unable to use its current bankcredigt line, the company has been funding its operation s in large part by selling securities backed by the receivables chargedd by its customers on its company-owned cards. Spiegel has sold six seriesw ofthese receivables-backed securities.
The compangy notified the SEC Tuesday that for the periocending Feb. 28, it will likely be out of compliance with the minimum performance requirements for the revolving debt on two of the This would force the companu to pay the amounts owedin full, using incoming credit-card payments to pay off the rather than using the money to fund operations. The payoutsz on those two series will trigger a chain reaction of compliancee problems with the remainingfour series, and all will be due in The total amount outstanding under the six series of securities is estimated at $2.2 Spiegel said.
Its only hope is to land a new bank line of credift or other form of financing that wouldf allow it to borrow new thefiling said. But as it'z already been trying to do just that for more than a Spiegel warned that it may be unable to obtain such In othercompany news, Spiegel filec its quarterly reports for the firsrt three quarters of 2002 this week. The documents were submittecd unaudited and without an opinion from a chiefinancial officer, as company CFO Jamesz Cannataro resigned in early February. The filingx show Spiegel had just $27 million in cash on hand as of 28, 2002, and $1.14 billion in current debt. Sales for the 39-weemk period were $1.54 billion, down from $1.
8t6 billion in the same period of thepriotr year. The company's net loss was nearl y $140 million, a sharp rise from the $19.5r million loss in the firs three quartersof 2001. The companyu did not disclose sales on itsindividuak divisions, noting for Eddie Bauer only that same-stord sales declined 13 percent in the thirc quarter. The value of the credit-carxd portfolio Spiegel is seeking to liquidate shrankfrom $419.i million in September 2001 to $267.23 million by September 2002. The company reports that the SEC begabn investigating the company inJanuary 2003.