Specialty retailer Francesca’s Holdings Corp. has won court approval to sell its remaining business out of bankruptcy to a group of buyers that plan to keep open about half of the chain’s roughly 550 stores, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Brendan Shannon of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., said on Thursday he would approve the sale of substantially all of Francesca’s assets to an affiliate of investment firm TerraMar Capital LLC and appraisal and liquidation firm Tiger Capital Group LLC, one of Francesca’s lenders. “This is a frankly very, very welcome result,” Judge Shannon said during a hearing Thursday held by video. “This is an extraordinarily challenging environment and to come up with competing, going concern sales and the opportunity for a robust auction, that would not have been anyone’s likely prediction at the outset of this process.” Los Angeles-based TerraMar, which served as the lead bidder along with Tiger, agreed to a purchase price of $18 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments, plus a promissory note for $1.25 million and the assumption of about $7.74 million in liabilities. The deal, which could close by next week, will preserve the business as a going concern with at least 275 Francesca’s boutiques. As of Tuesday, Francesca’s operated 551 locations, mostly in malls across the U.S. About 140 stores were shut before Francesca’s filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in December.
