Saks Global’s lenders face doubts about their claims against Fifth Avenue flagship store

Saks Global, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, reported better than expected earnings – even as its bondholders face fresh questions about their claims against its flagship store on Fifth Avenue, The Post has learned.

The luxury powerhouse said in a Friday statement that its merger is showing promising signs of growth and is ahead of its plan for “identifying and realizing synergies” from the $2.7 billion merger of Saks and Neiman in December.

“We have made significant progress integrating our organizations…all of which will help us to drive improved sales performance in fiscal 2025,” Marc Metrick, chief executive of Saks Global said in a statement.

4

But the five-month marriage got off to a rocky start when the company gave an update in April on its unaudited results for fiscal 2024 that scared off some investors of debt. 

In particular, questions surfaced over whether the bondholders’ investment is secured by a lien on Saks’ iconic flagship store on Fifth Avenue, according to Tim Hynes, the global head of credit research at Debtwire, which has reported on Saks Global’s financial condition. 

“When the people bought the bonds they thought they had a lien on the Fifth Avenue store, but if you read the documents carefully,” it’s not clear, Hynes told The Post. “Everyone thought, ‘This is not what I thought I got.’”

A source with knowledge of the situation added, “There is ambiguity right now on whether the bondholders have a lien on the flagship and a group of bondholders are working to understand the language of the bonds.”

4

A group of bondholders are currently working on an additional bond package that they “may want to amend, to tighten up,” the language, Hynes said.

Saks Global had also earlier revealed that it would delay repaying some of its vendors who are owed money since last year, raising questions about its liquidity.

The bonds had been trading at 100 cents on the dollar but quickly fell to as little as 34 cents as recently as this week.

4

On Thursday, Saks Global announced an additional $350 million in financing, quashing reports that it might not be able to make its first $120 million interest payment on the $2.2 billion in bonds that it sold to acquire Neiman Marcus.

Saks Global released its financial performance publicly for the first time since the December acquisition, showing the combined fiscal 2024 results for the company.

The company says it has identified an additional $100 million of synergies, bringing the total to $600 million that it expects to achieve over the next five years, including layoffs which have already begun.

4

Revenues for the combined entity were down 10% to $7.3 billion while profits were 130 basis points lower than the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $102 million, including $42 million contributed by Neiman Marcus in the six weeks after the transaction closed.

Saks Global said it has $700 million in cash, including the new financing this week. It blamed its  2024 performance on “reduced availability of goods” because of its inventory levels” and an “unfavorable macro-economic environment” which has negatively impacted consumer spending.