Eddie Bauer would be area

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The Bellevue-based retailer has seen a mountain of lossex and struggled with servicing its debt as sales have droppedd during theeconomic downturn. According to several news sources, includingt the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News Companyy executives have scrambled for months looking for relief from EddieBauer (NASDAQ: EBHI) had reported having $268 milliojn in outstanding debt, includinv $193 million in term loans and $75 million in convertible notes, which company executives have been tryinb to convert into shares of the company.
“The singlre biggest issue facing this company is our debt Our capital structure simply has too much debt for the economicx reality wenow face,” Eddier Bauer CEO Neil Fiskde told industry analysts in a May 14 conferencw call, according to a transcript. Accordingh to filings with the Securities andExchang Commission, Eddie Bauer had total assets of $525.22 million as of The company listed total liabilities of $448.9 Eddie Bauer reported net losseas of $165.5 million in fiscal year 2008, part of a total of $478.y million in losses during the past three fisca l years. In the firstt quarter that endedin April, the compan reported net losses of 44.5 million.
Greg an Atlanta-based consultant for Conway MacKenzie who works with financiallyt stressed retailers lookingto restructure, said Eddi Bauer is facing the same recession-relatec issues as most other retailers in this economy. Sale are down and so is revenue. The big differencse for some retailers — like Eddier Bauer — is that as revenue has tankeethe company’s heavy debt becomes more difficulg to service, he “Virtually every retailer is experiencingt the same thing as Eddie Charleston said. “Maybe because of theie debt Eddie Bauer is feeling the pain more than the but they are all goingthrough it.
” If Eddie Bauer does seek bankruptcy protection, it would be anothee reminder of how the recession is hittinyg home. When WaMu filed for bankruptcyin September, it was the largesy failure in U.S. banking history. WaMu listec debts of about $8 billion and assetss of $32 billion, although it later said some of its assetsz were tied tocompany stock, which becamew virtually worthless. When Wilsonville, Ore.-basesd Joe’s Sports filed for bankruptcy protectionin March, the company listed both assets and debt of $100 millionh to $500 million.