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Steinhoff International Holdings NV won support from a majority of creditors to restructure its 9.4 billion euros ($11 billion) of debt, seen by the embattled retailer as a vital step toward its recovery from an accounting scandal, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. sought a three-year extension to payments due to lenders and bondholders as the South African company repairs its balance sheet. About 89 percent of holders of debt in Steinhoff Europe AG agreed to the terms and the retailer will seek to wrap up the plan by the Friday deadline. Between 92 percent and 99 percent of holders of convertible bonds due 2021, 2022 and 2023 issued out of Steinhoff Finance Holding GmbH backed the plan, while holders of 89 percent of Stripes US Holding Inc. debt signed the agreement. The company still needs to complete final steps before the lock-up agreement with creditors becomes effective, Steinhoff said.

Gap Inc. is suing high-end-mall operator Westfield for allegedly overcharging the fashion retailer in an action that underscores the sometimes-tense relationship between landlords and tenants as e-commerce transforms the retail sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Other well-known U.S. retailers, such as Starbucks and Saks Fifth Avenue, have duked it out with landlords in court recently as they’ve sought to trim costs amidst a glut of shopping-center space. Mall vacancies in the U.S. recently hit a six-year high, with strip malls and neighborhood centers particularly hard-hit. Gap’s lawsuit, filed in May in a state court in Los Angeles, charges Westfield with using fraudulent accounting that resulted in Gap paying more than its fair share of mall expenses at more than two dozen shopping centers. Gap also sued Westfield’s contractors that provided trash collection, including Waste Management Inc., for charging non-competitive rates that were too high. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store. 

Toys “R” Us Inc. has reached a settlement with a group of lenders that will shield them from future litigation while boosting the recoveries of the retailer’s vendors and other creditors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Under the deal, pending court approval, Toys vendors and other creditors will receive a cash payment and potential for higher recoveries. In return, unsecured creditors and vendors will forgo their right to sue the group of lenders who opted to pull the plug on the retailer’s bankruptcy case. The retailer and a group of lenders known as B4 lenders took fire from creditors and vendors in March after the company abruptly announced it would be winding down its operations, due to disappointing holiday sales. The retailer’s more than 700 U.S. stores were officially closed in late June.

Former Toys “R” Us workers will ask a bankruptcy judge to give them severance pay, which could give them the same repayment priority as the lawyers, financial advisers and suppliers who were considered vital to winding down its U.S. operations, Bloomberg News reported. Toys “R” Us has agreed to give the workers until July 23 to file the request, according to a July 16 court document, leaving the possibility open that a severance agreement could be reached. The company also said that it reserves the right to fight the claim. By submitting an administrative claim in Toys “R” Us’s bankruptcy liquidation, the 33,000 workers are setting up a confrontation with other creditors given high priority under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Any severance deal that uses Toys “R” Us’s shrinking pool of cash would need court approval and would likely be opposed by other creditors.

Kids’ clothes retailer Gymboree is taking its first big step since emerging from bankruptcy in September: unveiling a rebranded apparel line and an increased tech push in an effort to appeal to the modern parent, Bloomberg News reported. “We have spent the past nine to 10 months positioning the company, and the Gymboree brand in particular, for a turnaround,” said Chief Executive Officer Daniel Griesemer, who took the helm in May 2017. The chain is rolling out its refreshed product line yesterday that includes more basic staples that better allow for mixing and matching — a defensive move against fast-fashion retailers that have taken a bigger share of the youth market. Within the next few weeks, as much as 75 percent of each store’s merchandise will be the new line, which is made up of hundreds of pieces. The remainder will be the store’s old inventory on clearance discount, Griesemer said.

With Toys “R” Us’s Geoffrey the giraffe facing possible extinction in the wake of the retailer’s closure, the San Antonio Zoo stepped up with a solution to save the bankrupt retailer’s mascot, the Houston Chronicle reported. The zoo last month launched an online campaign in hopes of “adopting” Geoffrey from Toys “R” Us Inc. to use as the face for giraffe conservation. Only 100,000 giraffes remain in the wild, the zoo said. The zoo started a GoFundMe page to raise $100,000 for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and “to persuade the owners at Toys “R” Us to join the effort to save giraffes by donating the use of their most recognizable intellectual property.” Given it’s mired in bankruptcy, Toy “R” Us isn’t in a position right now to simply give away the rights to Geoffrey for nothing. Bankruptcy lawyers say the retailer has a duty to maximize the amount of money it can recover from selling assets so it can pay creditors. Those assets include its U.S. intellectual property, such as its name, its catchy, vintage TV jingle — “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid” — the Babies “R” Us brand, and Geoffrey. “If there are no buyers for Geoffrey, then (Toys “R” Us) can ask the bankruptcy court for permission to donate those rights to a worthy cause, which could include the zoo,” said bankruptcy attorney John Penn, who is not involved in the case. But “they at least need to try to get some kind of value for it first.”