Needless Mess-up: Merged Saks and Neiman File for Chapter 11

By Rob Bates | January 14, 2026

One year after legendary department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus joined together to create Saks Global Enterprises, the combined company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday night in Houston federal court.

The move had been expected, especially after Saks Global missed a $100 million bond interest payment in December.

Following the filing, the company announced it had secured $1.75 billion in debtor-in-possession financing, which includes $1.5 billion from bond holders and $240 million from asset-based lenders.

Saks Global also appointed Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who headed Neiman Marcus for the six years prior to the merger, to serve as its new CEO. Raemdonck takes over from Richard Baker, the real estate tycoon who engineered the merger and served as Saks Global’s executive chair. Baker stepped down Jan. 13, after less than two weeks as CEO following the resignation of Marc Metrick.

In addition, Darcy Penick, former president of Neiman-owned Bergdorf Goodman, has been appointed Saks Global’s president and chief commercial officer. Lana Todorovich, Neiman’s former chief merchandising officer, was named Saks Global’s chief of global partnerships.

In a declaration filed Wednesday, chief restructuring officer Mark Weinsten called Saks Global “the largest multibrand luxury retailer in the world,” but admitted a persistent lack of liquidity led to its downfall.

“[This] is not a declining brick-and-mortar business,” Weinsten wrote. “The constraints faced by the company are not driven by declining demand; where product is available, performance has remained robust.”

Yet Saks was mostly unable to stock that product, and it struggled throughout 2025 to pay its vendors, because of strained finances and issues integrating the two companies’ merchandising systems. All this led to softer-than-expected sales, Weinsten said.

He added that Saks was “evaluating its operational footprint”—which likely means it will close some stores. The company currently has over 100 brick-and-mortar locations, including 33 Saks Fifth Avenues, 81 Saks Off Fifths, 36 Neiman Marcuses, two Bergdorf Goodmans, and five Last Calls. Its workforce numbers 14,610 full-time employees and 2,220 part-timers.

Saks Global’s top unsecured jewelry-related creditors, according to a bankruptcy court filing, include Chanel (owned $137 million), Kering ($60 million), Richemont ($30 million), LVMH ($26 million), David Yurman ($11.4 million), B.H. Multi Com ($11.2 million), and Roberto Coin ($9.7 million).

Both Saks and Neiman have had rocky recent histories—Neiman previously filed for Chapter 11 in May 2020—and had hoped the merger would make them stronger.

Saks Fifth Avenue has been owned by National Realty and Development Corp., helmed by Baker, since 2013. In mid-2024, Saks announced plans to merge with Neiman, its longtime luxury rival.

The $2.7 billion deal came to pass six months later, backed by a diverse group of investors, including big tech names such as Amazon and Salesforce, who were meant to provide logistical support.

From the outset, some expressed reservations about the merger, as Saks Global was taking on a heavy debt load, financed by junk bonds. Others were leery of Baker’s track record—he presided over the liquidations of once-prominent retailers Fortunoff, Lord & Taylor, and, in 2025, Canadian department store Hudson’s Bay.

In a recent Robin Report article, Mark Cohen, the former director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, called Baker’s stewardship a “trainwreck” but said the Saks-Neiman merger was probably doomed from the beginning.

“The history of two weak and/or weakened retail companies merging and finding success is simply this: There is no history,” Cohen said. “Add to that the nonstarter of two companies that essentially do business with the same customer and in many cases in the same geographic locations.”

Former Neiman executive Steve Dennis wrote on Substack that the Chapter 11 filing also reflected the larger ills in the department store sector—which, he said, has long driven same-store sales by increasing prices, rather than adding new customers. As a result, the stores were serving a more affluent clientele, and that limited their ability to both expand and attract young consumers.

“Older, wealthier customers generally start spending less on stuff as they age—and obviously eventually and literally die off,” Dennis said. “The addressable market for Saks Global has contracted dramatically.”

Saks Global’s bankruptcy papers can be seen here.

(Photo: iStock/John M. Chase)