The Untold Truth Of JC Penney

While JC Penney's bankruptcy proceedings are still ongoing, the retailer did reach an agreement with two mall operators (Simon and Brookfield) who'll be taking over ownership of the company's "retail and operating assets." This does not mean that Penney's will be going out of business, however, as the new owners plan to keep operating under the Penney's name. As store chain chief executive officer Jill Soltau puts it, even under new ownership Penney's plans to continue to "build on [its] over 100-year history." She goes on to say that the chain's "focus will remain on serving [its] customers," adding that it "expect[s] to continue...for decades to come under the JC Penney banner." William K. Snyder, a partner in turnaround management firm CR3 Partners, seems to agree. He told The Dallas Morning News (via Spaeth Communications) that Penney's is not "hopelessly insolvent" and that the embattled chain "has the value and resources to reorganize and successfully emerge [from bankruptcy]." 

While store closures affecting 13 states are still in the works for JC Penney, CoStar reveals that the company is now talking of scaling back on some of the previously-planned closures. What's more, Penney's also filed a motion in bankruptcy court to speed up its debt restructuring (via PrimeClerk), with the idea that it could pull itself out of Chapter 11 before the holiday season. That move, paired with store closure announcements from Gap, Nordstrom, and even Walmart, could signal an opening for a leaner JC Penny to recapture some of the retail space abandoned by its rivals. It could possibly be a fairly merry Christmas for JC Penney, after all.