Shoppers walk outside the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., Jan. 6, 2026.
Angelina Katsanis | Reuters
Saks Global, the parent company behind the 159-year-old department store that’s become both a destination and a symbol for luxury fashion, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after an unsustainable debt pile crushed its business.
The company also announced former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck will immediately take over as chief executive, replacing Richard Baker. He had been in the job for just two weeks, but had been involved with Saks since Hudson’s Bay acquired it in 2013 when he was CEO of the Canadian department store.
With van Raemdonck comes a revamped senior leadership team stacked with veterans from Neiman Marcus, which Saks Global acquired in 2024. Darcy Penick, who served as the president of Bergdorf Goodman before Saks bought the department store, will take over as president and chief commercial officer for Saks Global. Lana Todorovich, Neiman’s former chief merchandising officer, has been named chief of global brand partnerships.
Ahead of the filing, Saks secured $1.75 billion in new financing from a group of the company’s senior secured bondholders and asset-based lenders. The lion’s share, $1 billion, is debtor-in-possession financing that will be used to fund operations while the company is in Chapter 11 while an additional $500 million will be available to the company after it emerges from bankruptcy, which it said it expects to do later this year. Its asset-based lenders provided an additional $240 million in incremental liquidity.
The flush of new money comes after Saks struggled to line up DIP financing, which will be used to keep the business running during Chapter 11 proceedings, CNBC previously reported. Without it, Saks faced the prospect of liquidation, which could’ve spelled the end for one of the most fabled department stores in history.
A bankruptcy filing for Saks Global has been seen as inevitable for weeks after the company missed an interest payment to bondholders late last month. What is still unclear is what will happen to the company and the nearly 200 doors under its umbrella across Saks’ namesake stores and its off-price chain, along with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
In a news release, the company said its “evaluating its operational footprint” to put its resources where it sees the “greatest long-term potential.” That likely means a trimmed down store fleet in the coming months to reduce the company’s fixed costs.
“This is a defining moment for Saks Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future,” CEO van Raemdonck said in a news release.
“In close partnership with these newly appointed leaders and our colleagues across the organization, we will navigate this process together with a continued focus on serving our customers and luxury brands. I look forward to serving as CEO and continuing to transform the Company so that Saks Global continues to play a central role in shaping the future of luxury retail.”
How did Saks fall apart?
Though it caters to some of the wealthiest shoppers in the world, Saks has been steadily running out of cash and failing to pay some of its bills after it acquired its longtime rival Neiman Marcus in 2024 in a $2.7 billion deal heavily financed with debt.
Still, Saks was struggling to pay its vendors even before it acquired Neiman. Through the acquisition, the company received a flood of new money that was supposed to deleverage the combined business and provide it with “significant liquidity,” Saks said at the time.
The tie up brought a fresh slate of deep-pocketed investors from the tech world, including Amazon and Salesforce, and was expected to create a luxury department store powerhouse with an improved cost structure and stronger negotiating power.
Instead, Saks failed to implement the turnaround investors had banked on. It briefly got better at paying its vendors, but then moved to a 90-day payment term, angering and pushing away brands that said the conditions were too onerous to work for their businesses.
Soon, it stopped paying suppliers once again, which led to both a dip in assortment and sales.
In the backdrop, Saks’ debt began trading below its face value, raising questions about the company’s ability to keep operations running and make interest payments to bondholders, people familiar with the matter said. Over the summer, it secured $600 million in new financing and sold off key real estate assets to drum up more cash.
While those efforts bought the company some time, they ultimately didn’t prevent a bankruptcy filing.
