The company, which owns the iconic luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, filed for bankruptcy late Tuesday.
The move comes as Saks Global struggles with debt it took on to acquire rival Neiman Marcus, slowing sales at department stores and growing online markets.
This is one of the biggest retail collapses since the coronavirus pandemic and casts further doubt on the future of luxury fashion.
The retailer, which is also owned by Bergdorf Goodman, announced early Wednesday that its stores will remain open for the time being after completing a $1.75 billion financing package and appointing a new CEO.
The court proceedings are intended to give the luxury retailer leeway to negotiate debt restructuring with creditors or sell itself to new owners to avoid liquidation. If they fail to do so, the company may be forced to shut down.
Former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy Van Raemdonck will replace Richard Baker, who was the architect of the takeover strategy that left Saks Global in debt.
The company also named former Neiman Marcus executives Darcy Pennick and Lana Todorovich as Saks Global’s chief commercial officer and head of global brand partnerships, respectively.
Saks Global’s retail division, Saks Fifth Avenue, had assets and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas.
Saks, a retailer long beloved by the rich and famous, from Gary Cooper to Grace Kelly, has struggled since the pandemic as competition from online retailers increased and brands began selling products more frequently in their own stores.
Known for displaying products from Chanel, Cucinelli, Burberry and more, the original Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened in 1867 by retail pioneer Andrew Sacks.
Sachs Global said the new financing agreement provides an immediate cash injection of $1 billion through financing from a group of investors.
Unsecured creditors include a number of luxury brands, with Chanel and Gucci owner Kering leading the charge with about $136 million and $60 million, respectively, according to court filings. LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, was listed as an unsecured creditor for $26 million. Saks Global estimated there were between 10,001 and 25,000 creditors in total.
In 2024, Baker masterminded the acquisition of Neiman Marcus by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Corp., which had owned Saks since 2013, and then spun off its U.S. luxury assets to form Saks Global, uniting three names that have defined American high fashion for more than a century.
The deal was intended to create a luxury goods powerhouse, but it saddled Saks Global with debt at a time when global luxury goods sales were in the doldrums, making an already difficult turnaround even more difficult for CEO and veteran executive Mark Metric.
Saks Global struggled to pay its vendors last year and vendors began holding back inventory, disrupting the company’s supply chain and leaving it short on inventory.
Thin shelf inventory may have driven shoppers to rival stores like Bloomingdale’s, which posted strong sales in 2025, adding to the pressure on Saks Global.
“Wealthy people are still buying, they’re just not buying Saks as much,” Morningstar analyst David Swartz said last month.
Saks Global, which has been short on cash, sold the property that housed Neiman Marcus’ Beverly Hills flagship store last month for an undisclosed amount. The company was also considering selling a minority stake in luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in an effort to reduce debt.
On Dec. 30, it failed to pay more than $100 million in interest to bondholders.
