Eddie Bauer would be area

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The Bellevue-based retailer has seen a mountain of lossexs and struggled with servicing its debt as sales have dropped during theeconomic downturn. According to several news including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberv News Company executives have scrambled for months looking for relievffrom creditors. Eddie Bauer EBHI) had reported having $268 million in outstandinv debt, including $193 million in term loanw and $75 million in convertiblw notes, which company executives have been trying to converr into shares ofthe company.
“The single biggesgt issue facing this company is our debt Our capital structure simply has too much debt for the economicx reality wenow face,” Eddie Bauer CEO Neil Fiske told industry analysts in a May 14 conferencwe call, according to a transcript. According to filinga with the Securities andExchange Commission, Eddie Bauer had totapl assets of $525.22 million as of The company listed totakl liabilities of $448.9 million. Eddid Bauer reported net lossesof $165.5 millionh in fiscal year 2008, part of a totao of $478.7 million in losses duringy the past three fiscal years. In the first quartef that endedin April, the companuy reported net losses of 44.
5 Greg Charleston, an Atlanta-based consultant for Conwauy MacKenzie who works with financially stresseed retailers looking to restructure, said Eddid Bauer is facing the same recession-related issues as most otherd retailers in this economy. Sale s are down and so is revenue. The big differencw for some retailers like EddieBauer — is that as revenue has tanked the company’s heavy debt becomes more difficult to service, he “Virtually every retailer is experiencing the same thinhg as Eddie Bauer,” Charleston said. “Maybe because of their debt Eddiew Bauer is feeling the pain more than the but they are all goingthrougb it.
” If Eddie Bauer does seek bankruptcy protection, it would be another reminder of how the recession is hitting home. When WaMu filed for bankruptctin September, it was the largest failurre in U.S. banking history. WaMu listefd debts of about $8 billion and assetsw of $32 billion, although it later said some of its assets were tied tocompanyh stock, which became virtually worthless. When Wilsonville, Ore.-basesd Joe’s Sports filed for bankruptcy protectionin March, the companyu listed both assets and debt of $100 milliobn to $500 million.