David’s Bridal LLC’s chief executive officer is betting the retailer’s reputation with brides will help it find a rescuer in bankruptcy, even in an era of backyard weddings and scaled-down events, Bloomberg News reported. David’s CEO Jim Marcum said in an interview that the company held discussions with private-equity firms and potential strategic buyers since the retailer filed chapter 11 and that he’s optimistic they’ll complete a sale to keep many of its nearly 300 locations open. Company advisers are fielding potential bids through the end of May, he said. “We have quite a few NDAs signed; we’ve got people doing a lot of work,” Marcum said. “It’s pretty active.” Facing a severe cash crunch, David’s was forced to file bankruptcy this month without a deal to sell the business in hand. The filing marks David’s second trip to bankruptcy court after it emerged in January 2019 from an earlier chapter 11 with a plan that slashed about $450 million in debt from its balance sheet. Marcum joined David’s in 2019 from Apollo Global Management and later oversaw an out-of-court restructuring that swapped another $276 million of term loan debt for equity in the business and injected $55 million in capital. Soon after, COVID-19 forced David’s to temporarily shut its stores and set off a major upheaval in the wedding industry, which still hasn’t fully recovered.
