After months of grim anticipation, J.C. Penny (NYSE: JCP) has filed bankruptcy. JCP has been one of the retailers hardest hit by the novel coronavirus; since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have agreed it was basically inevitable that JCP and many of its competitors would file bankruptcy before the end of 2020. JCP joins J. Crew, Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) car rentals, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores, and others on the list of those filing Chapter 11.
As a part of its filing plan, JCP will be closing nearly 200 stores this year and will close another 50 in 2021. The massive retailer has yet to announce which of its 846 stores will be closed or how many of its 85,000 employees will lose their jobs.
The chain was forced to close all of its stores as COVID-19 spread across the United States. It had begun reopening less than 5% of its locations before its bankruptcy filings a week ago and went on to reopen another 115 last week. According to the filing, by the end of 2021 the retailer plans to have just over 600 stores open.
According to Barron's, JCP's future now rests on a surprising industry: real estate.
The company's current reorganization plan would split it into two parts: a retailer low on assets, and a publicly-traded real estate investment trust (REIT). The timeline to have this plan approved is tight, and if the company doesn't meet it, it may be forced to liquidate. The plan must be approved by July 14, and the company must lock down financing by Aug. 15.
The likelihood of JCP's success largely falls to real estate because it must decide which of its stores to close and must attempt to renegotiate leases on nearly 500 locations and five distribution centers. The more money they are able to free up in this process, the more they can raise for the REIT.
JCP currently holds some $4 billion in debt. According to Barron's, if the stores are open, JCP's properties unencumbered by creditor claims have a total valuation of $1.4 billion. The retailer saw annual net sales of $10.7 billion in 2019, a 7.1% drop from the year before. As of the filing, the company has $500 million in cash on hand and has received $900 million in financing from existing first-lien lenders.
JCP and retailers like it had been struggling for some time before the novel coronavirus was discovered. Online retailers have been threatening brick-and-mortar sellers, and big-box giants like Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) have grown significantly. Many retail and finance experts now question whether or not there is room in the American retail industry for chains like JCP anymore, even after the pandemic has ended.