Aeropostale files for bankruptcy protection

Fast changing fashion trends have been hitting Aeropostale badly for the last several quarters, and at last it opted for Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Wednesday.

The company is planning to shut down 154 stores in total - 113 in U.S. and 41 in Canada. It had around 800 stores and more than 14,500 staff across all the States in U.S, in addition to Canada and Puerto Rico.

In its filing with a New York court, the retailer said it has around 354 million US dollars in assets and 390 million US dollars in debt. The company believes cutting short its stores will help emerge from bankruptcy in next six months. In addition, it will try for potential buyers also.

Aeropostale has secured 160 million US dollars in bankruptcy financing from Crystal Financial LLC to keep going through the difficult time. It expects 21 million US dollars revenue from liquidation sales that would last up to eight weeks. In U.S. liquidation sales will begin on May 7 and in Canada on May 9.

The company has been experiencing supply delay as a result of fight with its major vendor MGG Sourcing.

The mall-based specialty casual apparel retailer became public in 2002. Its shares were on a decline since mid 2013. For the last 52 weeks, shares have been on a downward spiral, from 3.56 US dollars to 0.15 US dollars range

It received notice of de-listing on April 22 due to abnormally low trading price and was suspended from trading its commons shares. (DPA)

Photo: Aeropostale, Facebook