Belk Inc, is looking to raise around $500 million in fresh capital to help refinance existing debt and shore up its cash reserves, people farmiliar with the situation told Bloomberg News.
KKR & Co Inc, has approched private credit firms to raise about $200 million of hat amount for the department store chain, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss non-public imformation.
The resto f the proposed financing package includes a type of debt known as "first in last out" said some of the people. Those loans are structured to reward creditors that put new money into risky companies by offering yeilds associated with low-ranking debt alongside protections at the top of the capital structure.
Belk's intellectual property and credit-card royalties are among assets being considered as collateral for the loans, said the people.
Belk is controlled by private equity firm Sycamore Partners LLC, which acquired the company in 2015, KKR and Blackstone Inc also became shareholders in 2021 through a famously short bankruptcy that lasted only one day.
KKR's capital markets team has been leading conversations with investors to raise new funds, hoping to avoid a sharp spike in interest costs, the people with direct knowledge of the situation said.
Sycamore Partners , KKR, and Blackstone declined to comment. Belk reps did not return messages or phone calls.
In an April earnings call with investors, Belk management said the company was in talks to get a capital infusion. At the time, the company reps said it has extended its asset-backed loan to May 2025 from August of this yearm people apprised of the call said.
Belk also guided for a low-single-digit rise in sales for the 2025 fiscal year and a 14% year-over-year increase in earnings before the interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around $265 million, they said.