Clothing Retailers Tap Banks for $31 Billion in Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Clothing retailers, including department stores, have raised more than $31 billion from banks as the coronavirus pandemic batters sales, shutters shops and heightens online competition.

Specialist apparel retailers and designers, such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Adidas AG, have got more than $24 billion in new loans or drawdowns, according to data complied by Bloomberg. Department stores, led by U.S. giants J.C. Penney Co., Macy’s Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. have borrowed $7 billion.

J.C. Penney last week filed for Chapter 11 credit protection, as the coronavirus exacerbates years of pressure on retailers from Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce operators luring shoppers away from malls. Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded at least 30% of its global retail sector credit ratings due to the pandemic.

Retail also accounts for 18% of U.S. loan defaults this year, more than any other sector, according to Fitch Ratings. The U.S. retail sector’s twelve-month loan default rate has reached a record high 15.5%, it wrote in a report Monday.

The table below lists clothing companies and department stores that have drawn down on existing credit lines, raised new loans or amended financial covenants for liquidity headroom amid the pandemic.

Click here for Americas worksheet with full list of drawdowns, new loans and covenant revisions that can be sorted by countries, ratings, industries; click here for EMEA, and here for Asia.

* Pipeline

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