The high-end department store conglomerate Saks Global filed for bankruptcy protection on January 13, after missing the deadline on a $100 million interest payment. The Guardian says it is one of the largest retail collapses since the pandemic.

Saks Global said it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy “to facilitate its ongoing transformation,” only a year after the merger of chains Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.

Saks Global said early on January 14 that its stores would remain open for now, after it finalized a financing package worth $1.75 billion, and appointed a new CEO, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who was formerly the CEO of Neiman Marcus.

Saks Fifth Avenue, the retail arm of Saks Global, listed $1 billion to $10 billion in assets and liabilities, according to documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Houston, Texas.

Saks Global started to run into trouble when vendors started to withhold inventory because of overdue payments. Meanwhile, the company’s revenue fell 13% in the second quarter of 2025 as retail consumers continued to move their purchases increasingly online after the COVID pandemic.

Among the unsecured creditors listed in the court filing were Chanel and Gucci owner Kering at about $136 million and $60 million respectively. The world’s biggest luxury conglomerate, LVMH, was listed as an unsecured creditor at $26 million. In total, Saks Global estimated there were between 10,001 and 25,000 creditors.

The Guardian said the $2.7 billion deal included about $2 billion in debt financing and equity contributions from investors including Amazon, Salesforce and Authentic Brands. The latter two were listed in the court filing as equity investors.