Teen fashion retailer Deb Shops on Wednesday won court approval to launch going-out-of-business sales that will culminate with the closing of nearly 300 stores, the Wall Street Journal reported today. An auction on Tuesday ended in a deal with liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC, which will sell off the final inventory, furniture, fixtures and equipment, said Laura Davis Jones, a lawyer for the company. Arguments between the company and the liquidators in advance of the auction ended with an agreement that the liquidators will pay 82 percent of the cost of the inventory on hand, down from the original 98.25 percent they offered. The decrease translates into about $7 million less for creditors of the dissolving retailer, according to Derek Pitts, a financial adviser to Deb Shops. Judge Kevin Gross approved the auction results at a hearing yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Deb Shops sought chapter 11 protection in December.
