Claire’s Stores Inc. is turning to its creditors to help it avoid becoming the latest mall chain to succumb to a mountain of debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The “tween” jewelry chain that’s bounced along the bottom of the junk-debt market since its 2007 buyout by Apollo Global Management, is asking bondholders to swap almost $800 million of securities for a smaller amount of new loans. The deal would chip away at the retailer’s almost $2.5 billion debt load and give it more time to boost earnings after it lost more than $500 million in three years as mall traffic declined and competition intensified from online and specialty stores.
