Bon-Ton Stores (BONT) : Bankrupt chain postpones auction as investor group makes play to continue business

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. (BONT) announced that it has received a signed letter of intent from an investor group composed of DW Partners, Namdar Realty Group (including its partner Mason Asset Management) and Washington Prime Group (WPG), pursuant to which the investor group proposes to acquire the Company as a going concern in a Bankruptcy Court-supervised sale process. The Company and the investor group are in the process of finalizing an asset purchase agreement in advance of an auction, which is now scheduled to be held on April 16, 2018.

• http://www.bontonrestructuring.com/

On April 18, 2018, Bon-Ton officially announced Bankruptcy Court approval of an agreement governing the liquidation of the inventory and certain other assets of the Company. As such, Bon-Ton will conduct an orderly wind-down of its operations and is committed to minimizing the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors and the communities we serve.


The liquidation process in all Bon-Ton stores began on April 20, 2018, and is expected to run for approximately 10 to 12 weeks. Throughout the store closing sales, our stores, e-commerce and mobile platforms under the Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates will remain open and serving customers.

-=Bon-Ton Stores (BONT) : talks with Sycamore Partners

Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm with a reputation for scooping up troubled retail operations, has held talks with distressed department-store chain Bon-Ton Stores Inc. about acquiring some of its assets, people familiar with the matter said.

=Bon-Ton Stores (BONT) reported earnings on Thur 5/19/16 (b/o)

Bon-Ton Stores misses by $0.41, misses on revs; lowers FY17 guidance  :

• Reports Q1 (Apr) loss of $1.91 per share, $0.41 worse than the single analyst estimate of ($1.50); revenues fell 3.0% year/year to $608.4 mln vs the $628 mln single analyst estimate.
  • Comparable store sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 decreased 2.9%. Total sales in the period decreased 3.3% to $591.0 million, compared with $610.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
  • Sales increases were achieved in Home, Young Men's, Big and Tall and Young Contemporary, while Woman's Accessories was the poorest performing category. Sales were also impacted by general weakness in apparel and shoes.
• Co issues in-line guidance for FY17, lowers EPS to ($1.45)-(0.95) from ($1.00)-(0.50) vs. ($1.17) two analyst estimate. Adj. EBITDA to $130-140 mln from $140-150 mln; A comparable sales performance ranging from flat to a decrease of 1% from +0-1%; A gross margin rate ranging from a 30- to 50-basis-point increase over the fiscal 2015 rate of 34.7% from +40-60 bps.

=Bon-Ton Stores (BONT) reported earnings on Tue 3/15/16 (b/o)

Bon-Ton Stores misses by $0.15, misses on revs; guides FY17 EPS above two analyst estimate :

• Reports Q4 (Jan) earnings of $2.64 per share, excluding non-recurring items,$0.15 worse than the single analyst estimate of $2.79; revenues fell 1.6% year/year to $927.9 mln vs the $947.03 mln two analyst estimate. 
• Comparable store sales decreased 1.9%. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $94.0 million, inclusive of $3.9 million of severance costs associated with the Company's previously announced planned expense reductions (not included in the Company's guidance) and a $0.6 million gain associated with an insurance settlement.
  • Sales were robust from Black Friday through the month of December, with notable increases achieved in active wear across all families of business, Men's Big and Tall, Young Men's and Young Contemporary. However, sales of cold-weather goods decreased 10% in the period, more than offsetting sales increases we achieved in non-seasonal merchandise categories. We continued our trend of double-digit sales growth in omnichannel, which reflects sales via our website and Let Us Find It initiative, as we successfully leveraged our new West Jefferson facility and expanded store-fulfillment network.
• Co issues upside guidance for FY17, sees EPS of ($0.50-1.00) vs. ($1.35) two analyst estimate. A comparable sales performance ranging from flat to a 1.0% increase; a gross margin rate ranging from a 40- to 60-basis-point increase over the fiscal 2015 rate of 34.7%; Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $140 million to $150 million 

Bon-Ton Stores (BONT) reported earnings Thur 19 Nov 2015 (before open)

** charts after earnings **

 Bon-Ton Stores misses by $1.07, misses on revs; lowers FY16 guidance :

• Reports Q3 (Oct) loss of $1.72 per share, $1.07 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.65); revenues fell 3.0% year/year to $623.4 mln vs the $654.18 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Comparable store sales decreased 2.6% in the third quarter as compared with the prior year period.
  • Gross margin rate decreased 286 basis points as compared with last year to 33.4% of net sales in the current year period. 
• Co issues downside guidance for FY16, sees EPS of ($2.15-2.65) from ($0.40)-(0.90) vs. ($0.69) two analyst estimate. A comparable store sales performance ranging from a decrease of 0.5% to 1.5% from +1-1.5%; a gross margin rate ranging from a decrease of 70 to 80 basis points from the fiscal 2014 rate of 35.7% from -10 to -30 bps.
• The Company completed a $75 million accordion exercise on August 28 and, subsequent to the third quarter of fiscal 2015, completed a second transaction of $80 million that cumulatively expanded its borrowing capabilities under its revolving credit facility by $155 million, bringing total revolving commitments to $830 million.