Shoppers walk outside the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, New York City, USA on January 6, 2026.
Angelina Katsanis | Reuters
Saks Global, the parent company of the 159-year-old department store that is a luxury fashion destination and icon, has filed for bankruptcy protection after running out of cash and unable to find investors to fund the business.
Importantly, the retailer has filed for Chapter 11, which gives it a chance to reorganize its business, settle its debts and find a buyer to take over as a going concern.
The company announced Wednesday that former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy Van Raemdonck will become chief executive officer effective immediately, replacing Richard Baker, who has been in the role for just two weeks.
Saks also announced that it had secured approximately $1.75 billion in financing to strengthen its balance sheet.
CNBC previously reported that as recently as last week, Saks was struggling to raise as much as $1 billion in so-called debtor-in-possession financing, which provides funds to keep the business afloat during the Chapter 11 process. If Sachs had not prepared a DIP loan, a Chapter 7 liquidation filing would likely have been filed.
For several weeks, filing for bankruptcy seemed inevitable after Saks Global failed to pay interest to bondholders late last month. What’s not yet clear is what will happen to the company and its nearly 200 doors at its Saks namesake stores and off-price chains, as well as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
Bankruptcy proceedings can lead to a variety of potential outcomes. A strategic buyer with deep pockets could swoop in and buy the entire company, saving it from liquidation. Saks could liquidate while selling other business units, including smaller Neiman and Bergdorf. Like former competitor Lord & Taylor, Saks, Neiman and Bergdorf, or some combination of the three, could close all of their stores and become online-only companies.
The future of Saks Global will become clearer in the coming weeks as the company moves forward with its bankruptcy proceedings and continues to seek new investors.
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Saks, whose customers include some of the world’s wealthiest shoppers, has been steadily running out of cash and not paying some of its bills since acquiring longtime rival Neiman Marcus in a debt-laden $2.7 billion deal in 2024.
Still, Saks was having trouble paying its vendors even before acquiring Neiman. Sachs said at the time that through the acquisition, the company received a significant amount of new capital that was supposed to deleverage the combined business and provide “substantial liquidity.”
The partnership was expected to bring deep-pocketed investors from the tech industry, including Amazon and Salesforce, to a fresh start, improve cost structures, and create a luxury department store powerhouse with stronger bargaining power.
Instead, Sachs failed to implement the turnaround plan investors had hoped for. The company temporarily improved vendor payments, but then moved to 90-day payment terms, angering and pushing out brands who said the terms were too burdensome for their businesses.
Soon, the company stopped paying suppliers again, leading to a drop in both assortment and sales.
Sachs’ debt started trading below par, raising questions about the company’s ability to continue operating and pay interest to bondholders, the people said. Over the summer, the company secured $600 million in new financing and sold major real estate assets to increase cash.
Although these efforts bought the company some time, they ultimately did not prevent it from filing for bankruptcy.
