NIGHTMARE ON MAIN STREET….From the Wall Street Journal, this is as gruesome a statistic as I’ve seen yet:
Corporate-turnaround experts and bankruptcy lawyers are predicting a wave of retailer bankruptcies early next year, after being contacted by big and small retailers either preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or scrambling to avoid that fate.
….AlixPartners LLP, a Michigan-based turnaround consulting firm, estimates that 25.8% of 182 large retailers it tracks are at significant risk of filing for bankruptcy or facing financial distress in 2009 or 2010….Recent changes in the bankruptcy code make it more difficult for retailers to emerge from bankruptcy reorganization….Lawrence Gottlieb, a New York bankruptcy attorney at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP says that only two retailers have successfully emerged from bankruptcy proceedings since the amendments to the code were passed.
A quarter of all major retailers may be in either Chapter 11 or liquidation next year? Holy cow.
