4 CT Stores Prominent In Big Lots Bankruptcy, Sale Announcement

CONNECTICUT — Big Lots Monday announced that it has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection and has entered into a sales agreement with a private equity investment firm in a move that can save four of the nine Connecticut stores designated for closures with reworked leases.

The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Curt in Delaware.

Those stores are Manchester, Milford, Waterbury and Waterford, for which Big Lots has requested permission to formally exit the leases in those towns. They were on the closure list, along with the New Milford, Newington, Norwich, Torrington and Windsor stores.

Left off the closure list have been Bristol, Derby, East Haven, East Hartford, Middletown, North Haven and Wallingford.

A sale agreement with an affiliate of Nexus Capital Management calls for Nexus to acquire "substantially all" of Big Lots' assets and "ongoing business operations," and the Chapter 11 filing was initiated to boost along the proceedings, Bog Lots officials said.

"During and after this process, Big Lots will continue to serve customers at their nearest store location or online at biglots.com," officials said.

In "connection with the court-supervised process," Big Lots has secured total commitments of $707.5 million of financing, including $35 million in new financing from some of its current lenders, according to the announcement.

Big Lots has also filed a number of "customary" motions seeking court approval to continue supporting its operations, including paying employee wages and benefits, and payments to "certain critical vendors in the ordinary course of business."

"The Company anticipates receiving Court approval for these requests and expects to pay vendors in full under normal terms for any goods and services provided after the filing," Big Lots officials said.

Big Lots officials also said Monday that they have been notified by the New York Stock Exchange that the company is not in compliance with some listing requirements because the average closing price of its common shares was less than $1 over a consecutive 30 trading-day period.

"The notice does not result in the immediate delisting of the company's common shares from the NYSE," officials said.

Big Lots Chief Executive Officer Bruce Thorn said the chain would stick to its existing strategy of "extreme value" merchandise. He said Big Lots has been hit hard during an extended stretch of high inflation and interest rates, with regular shoppers cutting back their spending and insufficient numbers of households with disposable income "filling their shoes."