Sears Holdings Corp., the bankrupt retailer, owes money to vendors for everything from lawn mowers to washing machines. Those companies are increasingly worried the department store company will bleed too much cash to repay them in full, Bloomberg News reported. The vendors are selling their legal claims against Sears to hedge funds like Whitebox Advisors and Cherokee Debt Acquisition, with over $24 million of unpaid bills having changed hands so far, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of court filings. Whitebox has snapped up the vast majority of the debt. Cherokee has offered vendors between 55 and 70 cents on the dollar for the paper. Investment bank Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has also been seeking to buy the claims for 55 cents and sell them for 65 cents as recently as this week, according to people with knowledge of the market prices. Sears vendors including Electrolux AB, Sub-Zero and Perfect Fit Industries are among those that have chosen to get cash now, according to the court filings.
