R H Macy Co

R.H. Macy & Co. and Federated Department Stores filed a joint $4.1-billion reorganization plan Friday as the first step in a process to pay back Macy's creditors and by year's end bring Macy out of bankruptcy and merge the two companies into a retailing behemoth. The plan calls for the creditors to be paid through a combination of cash, debt and issuance of approximately $1.1 billion worth of new stock in the combined company. It would settle about $4.7 billion in claims.

In an attempt to stem its mounting losses, R. H. Macy & Co. said Wednesday that it will close seven poorly performing Macy's department stores, most of them on the East Coast, and the Bullock's in La Habra. The closings, to be completed by Aug. 1, will result in the layoff or reassignment of 1,850 workers and change the face of some communities in which the stores are important retail assets.

R. H. Macy & Co. on Monday named Joseph Cicio chairman and chief executive of I. Magnin, its specialty retail division, in a move that some analysts say could signal a sale of the upscale West Coast chain. Cicio will replace Rose Marie Bravo, who is becoming president of Saks Fifth Avenue. Bravo's departure is the latest in an executive exodus that has plagued Macy's since it filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

R.H. Macy & Co. will announce plans today to phase out the 118-year-old I. Magnin chain by putting eight of the 12 I. Magnin stores up for sale and establishing different specialty stores at the remaining sites. I. Magnin stores will continue to operate for now.

Launching its first major retrenchment since seeking bankruptcy court protection, R. H. Macy & Co. announced Thursday that it will close nearly 60 stores, including three I. Magnin locations in California. Separately, in a sign of a possible power struggle at Macy's, Chairman Edward S. Finkelstein denied a report that Vice Chairman Myron Ullman III had been designated to succeed him.

The junk bonds of R. H. Macy & Co. bounced back Friday afternoon after tumbling earlier, but bankruptcy-wary analysts and suppliers still expressed concern about the reduced flow of credit to the big retailer. Worries mounted during the week amid word that many of the nation's biggest factoring companies--lenders that finance apparel firms and other key retail suppliers--tightened credit on merchandise bound for Macy's.

California business groups, worried about the possibility of being walloped with an estimated $6 billion in new property taxes, expressed dismay Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to consider a challenge to the state's Proposition 13 initiative. Officials at the California Chamber of Commerce and other business development organizations predicted gloomy consequences if the high court eventually throws out all or part of the tax initiative.

At the season when retailers hope only for consumers' goodwill, the corporate parent of the Bullock's and I. Magnin department store chains finds itself unmerrily accused of shoplifting part of Los Angeles' cultural history. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and architectural preservationists are strongly urging that R.H. Macy & Co.

Going after a company that's under bankruptcy court protection--as Federated Department Stores is doing with R.H. Macy & Co.--isn't buying on the cheap. Experts say it's a complicated and costly way of doing a takeover, merger or acquisition, and one with significant risks. Yet, merger and bankruptcy experts alike predict a steady and increasing stream of such acquisitions, including takeovers that appear at first blush to be unwanted--as in the Macy-Federated situation--or downright hostile.