Mattress Firm Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last week, won court approval Tuesday to begin closing hundreds of stores and said it plans to renegotiate leases and seek rent concessions at “many more,” WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi also gave the nation’s largest specialty mattress seller clearance to start using up to $250 million in financing to help it get through its chapter 11 reorganization. The Houston-based retailer had acquired dozens of rivals over the past decade, leading to a glut of stores, a lawyer for the company said yesterday. The bankruptcy filing follows a deal that Mattress Firm’s troubled parent company, Steinhoff International Holdings NV, struck with its bondholders to hand them a 49 percent stake in the retailer. Steinhoff took Mattress Firm private two years ago for $3.8 billion.
