Bankrupt Sears Canada Asks Court For Permission To Liquidate, Shut Down

Like its American cousin, Sears Canada is in financial trouble. Unlike Sears Holdings, it doesn’t have a vast real estate portfolio that it can sell to raise cash. To that end, the company announced today that there is no way to keep the business going, and it will close all stores and liquidate.

Tears for Sears, eh?

Since June, Sears Canada has been under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, or CCAA, a process similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. The company’s leaders intended to sell the chain or find investors, which the court approved, but no buyers or investors were able to reach a deal.

Possible suitors included ESL Investments, the hedge fund run by Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert, who owns nearly half of Sears Canada’s stock, and Fairholme Capital. The last potential transaction that would have saved stores and jobs was a bid by the company’s own executive chairman, Brandon Stranzl, but that also fell through.

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