Latest news with #Metrick
Fashion United
30-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
Saks Global secures 350 million dollars in financing commitments
Saks Global, the newly formed retail group comprising Saks and Neiman Marcus, has announced that it has secured 350 million dollars of financing commitments from SLR Credit Solutions. This reflects progress against its previously announced measures to strengthen its balance sheet, the company said in a release. Anticipated the close on or before June 30, the commitments, subject to customary conditions, consist of a 300 million dollar first-in, last-out (FILO) facility for the company and a 50 million dollar secured term loan facility for certain subsidiaries, 'providing additional liquidity to support the execution of the company's business plan'. The FILO is to be incurred as an incremental facility associated with Saks Global's existing 1.8 billion dollar asset-based lending facility. The financings will provide the company with around 700 million dollars in available liquidity on a pro forma basis, Saks Global Operating Group CEO, Marc Metrick, said. In his statement, Metrick noted that the company has 'always planned' to implement measures to bolster liquidity as it continues to execute its transformation strategy. He continued: 'Along with synergy realisation and business performance exceeding our plans, we are well positioned to continue delivering for all of our stakeholders, including our brand partners.' Saks Global is a newly formed entity that was made upon Saks' acquisition department store giant Neiman Marcus Group, which it snapped up in December 2024 for 2.7 billion dollars. Its portfolio consists of Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th, creating what the company's executive chairman, Richard Baker, said was 'an unparalleled multi-brand luxury portfolio with tremendous growth potential'.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Saks Connections: Luxury Reset and Industry Shake-up
Any good controversy has two, maybe three players squaring off, repositioning for a future that is usually coming much sooner than later. And then there's a focal point — some kind of friction or worry — that animates it all, forcing a kind of forward momentum. More from WWD What's the Big Idea? The WWD Beauty CEO Summit Speakers Have Quite a Few Saks Arrived on Amazon, the Trade War Is Still on Its Way Saks Bondholders Prove to Be a Tough Sell The state of Saks Global is not just a good controversy — it's a great one. Instead of only a few players, there's a kaleidoscope of interests all coming together, looking to merge Saks and Neiman Marcus, build the future of luxury shopping, continue to ship their goods — or just get out with a return on their investment. At the center of it all are Saks' executive chairman Richard Baker and its chief executive officer Marc Metrick. It was Baker who realized his years-long dream to buy Neiman's, closing a hard-fought $2.7 billion deal last year. But it's Metrick who has the day-to-day responsibility for making it work. Their attempt to reset the luxury model has included longer payment terms for vendors, a new organizational structure with a commercial team instead of chief merchants, cost cutting and more. Each step of the way there has been something noteworthy — a ton of angst, some strategic pivot, strange bedfellows or big-time money. Early investors like Insight Partners, who gave the company $500 million in 2021 to establish a stand-alone Saks e-commerce business, needed to flex with the changing market and strategy. New investors and partners had to be brought onboard, including Amazon, which just launched a Saks e-commerce storefront. Brands that kept shipping to Saks even as past-due bills piled up needed to accept a delayed repayment schedule. Factors, like Hilldun's Gary Wassner, had to navigate between brands and the retailers, deciding which shipments to secure. The workforce at Saks and Neiman's weathered cuts and some store closures. And all the while competitors like LuxExperience, the new Mytheresa and Net-a-porter mashup, have have been angling for advantage. Now it's the bondholders who have surged to the fore. Even though it was just five months ago that Saks sold $2.2 billion in bonds to finance the combination, the investors holding that debt are nervous, trading it for less than 58 cents on the dollar. Metrick said the company has nearly $400 million in liquidity. But talk of liquidity is rarely all that reassuring and the market — made up of the hundreds of investors who now hold the bonds — is looking ahead to a roughly $120 million interest payment due at the end of June. That comes on top of the bills to vendors for spring merchandise and the back payments to brands that are promised to start in July. Bondholders are now waiting to see how the luxury reset will play out. They have plenty of company. The Bottom Line is a business analysis column written by Evan Clark, deputy managing editor, who has covered the fashion industry since 2000. It appears periodically. Best of WWD Tailoring Black Style: Celebrating Iconic Black Male Figures in Fashion Kate Middleton and Prince William's 14 Most Iconic Matching Moments: A Celebration of Style and Love 14 Cutest Kate Middleton and Prince William's Look-alike Couple Style Moments [PHOTOS] Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Saks Bondholders Prove to Be a Tough Sell
Bondholders can be a tough crowd — just ask Saks Global. Equity investors are more excitable and want nothing but growth. But since bondholders have actually loaned a business money, they care about just one thing — that company's ability to make the required interest payments and to pay up when the bonds come due. More from WWD Saks Joins Amazon in Designer Fashion Breakthrough Saks CEO Marc Metrick Reassures Bondholders, Says Company Has $350M to $400M of Liquidity Inside the Saks-Neiman Marcus Merger And debtholders are feeling shakier about Saks, which sold $2.2 billion in junk-rated bonds in December to help it buy Neiman Marcus Group. Those bonds were trading at as high as 97.75 cents on the dollar at the start of the year, according to S&P Capital IQ. But trouble in the retail outlook, declines in consumer confidence and tariffs spooked the market, which as of Friday had bondholders selling the IOU's from Saks for 63.88 cents on the dollar. That decline was fast and sharp enough to prompt Saks Global chief executive officer Marc Metrick to step in and try to reassure the market in a call on Monday. In addition to some updates on money saved as Neiman's is melded with Saks, Metrick said the company had between $350 million and $400 million of liquidity now. Additionally, it's not planning on taking on more debt, but might carve out part of its $1.8 billion asset-backed loan for what's known as a FILO facility that could be quickly tapped to cover any needs. It wasn't enough for bondholders, who traded the debt down to 55.5 cents on the dollar on Monday. That extra jitter passed and a late trade on Tuesday was at 61.43 cents, not far off of where trading started on Monday, according to a market observer. The problem is Saks has lots of bills to cover. In addition to paying for recent shipments from vendors, it has a long list of past-due bills to suppliers that it's promised to catch up on. It also has a roughly $120 million interest payment on the bonds due in late June. It's a lot to juggle, given all the changes taking place at the company, which also on Tuesday launched a storefront on Amazon, bringing a host of big designer names to the e-commerce giant. 'I'm sitting here as a CEO in a world where I've got a big plan for transformation,' Metrick told WWD on Monday. 'I've got to invest in that transformation. I've got to be a strong counterparty to my brand partners and we're seeing a turbulent market. There's a lot of unknowns with what could happen, and I'm further fortifying my balance sheet. That's what I'm doing.' If the drop in bond prices makes it seem like Saks is scrambling, the retailer has lots of company. 'Who isn't scrambling?' said Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp., which has been supportive of Saks and helps finance many brands shipping to the company. 'Retail has had to deal with crisis after crisis,' Wassner said. 'COVID[-19] caused so much damage, and now tariffs. With consumer confidence dropping, it's getting harder and harder for the industry to know how to manage operations, purchases and pricing. Uncertainty is not a consumer motivator. 'The bond price concerns me, but I'm not surprised to see it where it is, in an environment like this,' Wassner said. 'Saks is a fighter, and [executive chairman] Richard Baker isn't a person who backs away from a challenge. If Saks Global can normalize its receipt of merchandise, it will improve cash flow and increase margins.' Best of WWD Harvey Nichols Sees Sales Dip, Losses Widen in Year Marred by Closures Nike Logs $1.3 Billion Profit, But Supply Chain Issues Persist Zegna Shares Start Trading on New York Stock Exchange Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EXCLUSIVE: CEO Marc Metrick Says Saks Global Will ‘Reset' the Multibrand Luxury Distribution Model
After a tough 2024, the newly formed Saks Global has a master plan to 'reset' how it conducts business and has begun providing some clarity on its strategy to vendors. Officials also disclosed Friday that Saks Global has ample liquidity to be stronger partners to brands and has a new payment schedule to make good on what it owes vendors, but will also be culling its matrix to focus on stronger vendors and become better partners with those that stick with Saks. More from WWD Calvin Klein, Thom Browne, Khaite, Carolina Herrera Called Standouts by Stores in Otherwise Subdued New York Fashion Week Ulla Johnson CEO Thibaut Perrin-Faivre Talks About His Careful Approach to Growth Saks Kicks Off New York Fashion Week at Crane Club Saks notified vendors of its new payment schedule, indicating that effective March 1, vendors will be paid 90 days from receipt of inventory and that all past due balances will be paid in 12 monthly installments beginning July 2025. All payments will be made through wire/ACH at the earliest date commercially possible, Saks indicated, thereby 'taking significant friction out of our processes.' Many vendors, particularly smaller ones, haven't been paid for several seasons, and have curtailed or stopped shipping Saks altogether. 'We are resetting the multibrand luxury distribution model, not because we feel like it. It's because the model no longer works,' Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks Global, told WWD in an exclusive interview Friday. 'The only thing that hasn't changed in the 29 years I've been doing business is how all the financials work, how the vendors get paid, but a lot more of the model hasn't been working right. 'Creating this amazing platform [Saks Global] gives us the ability to become a destination where customers will want to shop, but also where brands will want to do business and be able to grow. We have to make certain changes. We have to reset to make sure that we're setting up the right expectations, that we're doing everything that we're supposed to be doing and that we give everyone consistency and certainty, and they can feel good about doing business with us. Growing with the brands is also very important, but I really want to make sure people understand that [with] our brand partners, no one lost money with Saks because they are going to get paid. Did they get paid when other companies filed for bankruptcy? No.' Asked how short Saks Global has been on merchandise recently, Metrick replied: 'It's getting better since we closed the deal, but you still have a lot of people who are holding back, probably because they just needed clarity. And this is what this gives them. This gives them certainty and clarity and guarantees.' Metrick declined to specify how much Saks Global owes vendors, but the amount is said to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. 'The recommendation I have for every one of our partners is to put the last 18 months behind them. We need to pull together and galvanize as an industry to move forward and grow. That's what we've got to do. Our goal is to change this model — the way we go to market, the way we sell to the customer, the way we deal with our brand partners, everybody. 'I'm very sympathetic to where Saks has been, but at the same time, not one brand partner of ours is losing money with our company — not one. So that's not anything that any of the other luxury guys can say,' Metrick said, referring to when Barneys New York and Neiman Marcus Group went bankrupt years ago, and how Farfetch and imploded. Saks-parent Hudson's Bay Co. bought the Neiman Marcus Group and combined the two retailers in December, effectively creating a $10 billion luxury empire in the U.S. Saks Global now includes Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th. To close the deal, Saks Global, led by executive chairman Richard Baker, pulled together some creative financing involving two tech giants, Amazon and Salesforce, and two apparel industry giants, G-III and Authentic Brands Group. Saks also secured a $2.2 billion bond. Many changes have already been made. To lead the Neiman's and Saks stores and e-commerce operations, Saks has created a single management structure with new leaders and senior positions and titles the industry hasn't seen before, and some traditional roles, like chief merchant, dropped. Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus operate together, but Bergdorf Goodman is being kept separate. The consolidation is expected to reduce costs ad Saks Global hopes cuts annual costs by approximately $500 million over the next few years, according to Metrick. Saks Global will adopt AI in the right places for greater personalization and to maximize the customer experience. In addition, Saks is expected to appear in some form or manner on Amazon. 'We have plans to launch a unique and exciting experience,' Metrick said, declining to go into further detail. As a byproduct of creating Saks Global, 'We have ample liquidity. That's not a problem,' Metrick said. 'S&P just gave us a stable rating. They indicated that we have the wherewithal and the cash to be able to execute on the transition and integration.' The retailer current works with close to 3,000 brands. 'Our expectation is that over the next year or so, we'll be doing business with 25 percent fewer brands than we're doing business with today,' Metrick said. 'We can't have that many brands and be a great partner for each one and vice versa. There's going to be some culling, both by brand partners themselves and us. We're going to be doing business with fewer brands next year, and we have to pick up a lot of volume. But it's going to be a great thing to be part of the Saks Global ecosystem.' The goal, Metrick said, is that vendors 'feel good about doing business with us. Of course, growing with the brands is also very important.' 'We want to be a strong, accountable and responsible partner to our brand partners,' Metrick said. 'To do that, we're going to need their support, and the support of those that that provide capital to them, those that lend to them, and those that own them. Everyone needs to come together to strengthen the distribution in the United States. It's critical, and that's why we put these companies together, so that we can build something great for everybody.' In other news at Saks, Mark Weinsten, a managing director in BRG Corporate Finance based in Boston and a member of that firm's corporate finance leadership team, has been named interim chief financial officer for Saks Global. He will pay a key role in dealing with vendors and other financial issues. Saks indicated Weinsten specializes in taking on interim roles, and previously served as Neiman Marcus Group's interim chief financial officer, and earlier interim chief restructuring officer. He also once served as NMG's chief operating officer, and interim CEO at Z Gallerie and interim CEO of Manischewitz, among other executive roles. Weinsten succeeds Jeff Pedersen who left after just six months on the job. Asked why the CFO switch was made, Metrick said: 'When Jeff joined us, we were digital, a pure play. We were going to maybe do the transaction, maybe not. And then when we closed on the transaction, we went from a $2 billion digital company, which is where his expertise, to a $10 billion company with different channels of business with lots of layers and lots of integration and transformation ahead.' On Friday, Metrick sent a letter to vendors a copy of which was obtained by WWD. He wrote that, 'Over the last several weeks we completed an analysis of the payables backlog and evaluated payment terms across Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.' Metrick spelled out the new go-forward payment terms and plans to pay back what's owed vendors. 'The expectation is that this provides the clarity and certainty you have been seeking,' the CEO wrote. 'To that end, we are looking forward to seeing the flow of merchandise return to normal levels so that we can begin to focus on driving our businesses together. In the absence of the normal flow of goods, we anticipate that we will have to make changes to our brand partner matrix. 'We are committed to fulfilling all of our obligations to our brand partners, and ask that you continue to partner with us, including by shipping merchandise, so that we can grow our businesses together over the long term. 'With the closing of the NMG acquisition, our financial position is strong and our leverage is reduced, which will allow us to make investments to be a better partner to our brand partners. Furthermore, S&P Global Ratings — as part of our capital raise — recently reaffirmed its stable outlook on Saks Global, reinforcing that the company has ample liquidity to execute on its strategy and the integration of the business. Moving forward, Saks Global will be in an increasingly stronger position. By bringing together our retail brands, we expect to realize significant synergies that will further improve our financial position.' Best of WWD Macy's Is Closing 66 Stores in 2025 — Here's the List, Live Updates Inside the Demise of Lord & Taylor COVID-19 Spikes Elevate Retail Concerns
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE's access to Treasury data risks US financial standing and raises security worries, experts warn
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Government Efficiency's embed into the federal government has raised a host of concerns, transforming a debate over how to cut government waste into a confrontation over privacy rights and the nation's financial standing in the world. DOGE, spearheaded by billionaire Donald Trump donor Elon Musk, has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies and taken drastic actions to cut spending. This includes trying to get rid of thousands of federal workers, shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development and accessing the Treasury Department's enormous payment systems. Advocacy groups and labor unions have filed lawsuits in an attempt to save agencies and federal worker jobs, and five former treasury secretaries are sounding the alarm on the risks associated with Musk's DOGE accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems and potentially stopping congressionally authorized payments. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. 'Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default. And our credibility, once lost, will prove difficult to regain,' said former treasury secretaries Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew and Janet Yellen in an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday. They warn about the risks of 'arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy.' Musk said on his social media platform X on Monday that 'we need to stop government spending like a drunken sailor on fraud & waste or America is gonna go bankrupt. That does mean a lot of grifters will lose their grift and complain loudly about it. Too bad. Deal with it.' Experts in the financial and digital privacy worlds warn that the U.S. financial system is delicate and complicated and could be harmed by unilateral moves. They also say that Americans' personal information could be compromised by the unsafe handling of sensitive data. Andrew Metrick, director of the Yale Program on Financial Stability, says DOGE's actions as a 'go fast and break things group' pose a danger to the U.S. financial system and the U.S. dollar's standing as the world's reserve currency. On the issue of cutting government programs or potentially undermining U.S. democratic norms, DOGE is 'not going to care, but they should care about harming the dollar and harming the safety of U.S. government debt,' Metrick said. Crossing the Rubicon of danger would be something perceived as a default event on bonds, Metrick said, especially as the U.S. runs very close to its statutory debt limit. 'We maintain a complicated financial system — a few wrong actions and the world loses confidence in our ability to manage that system." On cybersecurity issues, the public has no idea what safeguards or policies, if any, Musk and his staffers used to protect the sensitive data they accessed, according to John Davisson, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for digital privacy. Davisson called DOGE's access 'the largest data breach and most consequential data breach in U.S. history.' The Treasury Department's databases include information about individual and business taxes, medical records, Social Security payments and numbers, and government payments, as well as a long list of other personal data, such as birthdates, home addresses and phone numbers, military records and disability information, Davisson said. Typically, government employees who handle the data are subject to training requirements and myriad rules to ensure the data isn't mishandled, leaked or breached. Often, data is kept segregated in different systems to ensure no one person has easy access to all the information. What may look like inefficiency, Davisson said, is actually a means of securing sensitive data. It was an 'imperfect but quite robust' system, Davisson said, and without it, Americans could be at greater risk of identity theft, stalking or other crimes. Personal information could be sold to online data brokers, who could use the data to gain an even more accurate portrait of Americans and their habits. Davisson said he doesn't accept arguments from Musk and Trump that the data access is about finding efficiencies in government. 'This is about control. There are ways to improve efficiency in government. ... They involve legislation, they involve regulation, they involve trained personnel and experts,' he said. 'This is about establishing control over databases and thereby establishing control over federal agencies.' In one of several disputes over DOGE's access to the Treasury Department, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued to block the payments system review from proceeding because of concerns about its legality. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday restricted DOGE's read-only access of Treasury's payment systems to two workers, one of them Tom Krause, who now appears on the Treasury Department website as performing the functions of fiscal assistant secretary. Saturday's court ruling in favor of 19 Democratic attorneys general who sued to block DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury Department records shows Americans aren't powerless to stop Musk, said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, one of the groups that has sued the government over DOGE's access. She said her group and other advocacy organizations will work to ensure the new administration follows the law — and that court orders are followed. 'This is really clear law. Our federal records have personal information in them. They're protected,' she said. 'They are moving fast and doing things that normal governments wouldn't try, and the courts are responding appropriately.' Trump told Fox News on Sunday that Musk is 'not gaining anything" from his role in DOGE. 'We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions, of dollars of fraud and abuse and, you know, the people elected me on that,' Trump said. Metrick said: "I am nervous they have a hammer and the whole government looks like a nail to them, but Treasury is a thumb.'
