Prospective lenders to Sears Holdings Corp. have so far rejected Chairman Eddie Lampert’s appeals to help fund a loan and stave off liquidation. Now the company is trying new tactics to attract financing, Bloomberg News reported. A Sears lawyer told a judge on Thursday that the department-store chain was reviewing alternative structures for a proposed $300 million bankruptcy loan intended to keep stores open during the holidays. Lampert’s ESL Investments Inc. has been in talks to provide at least some of the money along with hedge fund Cyrus Capital Partners. But after approaching several other potential lenders asking them to help fund the loan, ESL has found no takers. The cold shoulders could test Lampert’s resolve to once again prop up the department-store chain, which already owes him and his investment entities more than $2.6 billion. The hedge fund manager, who is also Sears’s biggest shareholder, has said he wants to buy some of the company’s stores out of bankruptcy and keep the retailer going as a slimmer, less-indebted business.
