American court hearing recordings and interviews - Listen to the Saks bankruptcy court hearing of May 11, 2026

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

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Just head to mood.com. That's M-O-O-O-D.com to get started. All right, good afternoon. It is Monday, May 11, 2026. We're here for the 1 o'clock docket, case number 26-9013, SACS Global Enterprises. So why don't we get appearances of counsel, and then we can proceed and make sure to go to my web page and note your formal appearance. That's how we keep track of formal appearances in this case. All right, why don't we go ahead? Can you add any of that. Can you hear me okay, Your Honor?

I can hear you fine. We're going to have to mute. the line in a minute but let's try to get appearances first and then I'll mute the line okay okay thank you your honor Allison Smith we'll keep on down over for the global debtors good afternoon yeah okay sir all right let's your old farm jackson Walker my colleague Chrissy Piguero and Victoria Arboros going us in the courtroom we are representing burlington co factory warehouse corporation all right go ahead mr. Miller I think you're muted

Sorry about that, Your Honor. Good afternoon. For the record, Curtis Miller of Morris Nichols-Arston Tunnel on behalf of Tangor Management. Okay. Ms. Sardyhan? Yes, Your Honor, can hear me? Yes, I can.

Okay, great. This is Nahalz. You have a passion off at LLC. Okay, Mr. Summers. Good afternoon, Your Honor. Matthew Summers, on behalf of Ross Dr. West. All right. Ms. Howellman.

Good afternoon, Your Honor. Leslie Heilman, Ballard Sparr, on behalf of Federal Realty OPLP. All right, Mr. Persons. Afternoon, Your Honor, Charles Persons of Paul Hastings on behalf of Landlord PICB Inc. All right, Mr. Furland. Good afternoon, Your Honor,

Nicholas Furland, Parkley Damon, on behalf of Atlanta outlet shops and LLC. All right, Mr. Saluti. Good afternoon, Your Honor. Martin Jace, I would your policies on behalf of the hospital. All right. Mr. Farioli.

Good afternoon, Your Honor. Rats, Farioli, of Morrison and Forrester. On behalf of the official committee of once you're good predators. All right. And Mr. Fendrich. And good afternoon. You're on Charles Fendricks of Kelly Breran and Warren

on behalf of Landlord Regency Center to R.P. All right. Does anyone else wish to make an appearance? All right. Can everyone please mute their lines? For the record, again, Your Honor, Allison Smith, Wilkie Farn Gallagher for the Global Debtors. There's only one matter before the court this afternoon, approval of the remaining pending lease assignment. I'm pleased for now that we are here on a fully consensual basis, and while we hope to get revised orders on file in advance of this hearing under certification of counsel,

we have been working constructively over the weekend and through this morning to finalize those final points. We are prepared to submit order for entry hopefully as soon as this afternoon, once those remaining pieces are confirmed, and, of course, subject to everybody reviewing and affirming their sign-off as well. That said, and if the court will indulge me for a moment, I would like to take the opportunity to summarize where we landed, as the transactions originally proposed under the original motion and order filed at Stockett Number 1155, has shifted as a result of additional settlements and negotiations among the parties in the interim. Under the original motion and order, the following transactions were contemplated. 22 leases to be assigned to Burlington for an aggregate 22 million purchase price.

Four leases to be assigned to Ross for an aggregate 4 million purchase price. Three leases to books a million for 1.15 million. Two leases to Cavender for 750,000 plus assumption of Tercop. And one lease assignment to Bala Plaza for 8.5 million. As I alluded to, certain settlements and negotiations and otherwise resolution have been reached with various landlords whose leases were subject to those original assignment transactions. Specifically, we reached a grant with the Tangor landlord that rather than assign five of its leases to a third party, we negotiated a mutual termination for $4.3 million and release of claims. Three of the terminated leases were originally part of the Burlington package, and two were part of books a million. Those terminations were approved via stipulation entered previously, excuse me, at docket number 2019.

Additionally, and as the court is aware, the global debtors have been an extensive negotiations with Simon regarding its leases and pending litigation. That settlement was reached and motion was filed Friday evening at docket number 2244. Obviously, that is not before the court today, but there were a number of Simon leases previously subcommittee. to the various assignment transactions. And lastly, disposition of the Dala Clause lease, that was originally structured as a sale and lease assignment, subject to finalization as of the filing of the original motion and order.

In the interim, certain dynamics change with respect to structuring that deal, and it was restructured as a mutual lease termination. A stipulation providing for termination of that lease was also previously approved for a termination price of $6 million at docket number number 2207. Additionally, prior approvals

rocks for two of its leases for a purchase price of $2 million and Kavanaure for one lease at a purchase price of $500,000 plus pure costs were previously approved at docket number 1916. Notably, despite the various interim settlements reach, these transactions

have allowed the global debtors to achieve a substantially equivalent aggregate purchase price for the lease is originally subject to that motion at 1155, while conferring additional benefits to the estate, including mitigation of litigation cost and risk, in addition to certain reduction damages, cure claims, and otherwise.

The way does that leave us for today? There are two sale and assignment transactions before you, one to Ross and seven leases to Burlington. The sale and assignment of one lease to Ross is for $1 million and resolves various cure amounts, as well as division of go-forward obligations, post-assignment. And to fill an assignment of seven leases to Burlington for an aggregate $4.5 million. Similarly, we're working to continue reconciling cure costs

and agreeing to language to fight for care or delineate, excuse me, go-forward, versus remaining obligations. Ultimately, approval of these transactions will enable the global debtors to realize meaningful value from these assigned leases, as well as major cost savings and reduced litigation risk, as I mentioned previously, while positioning the go-forbizance and store footprint to better align the overall go-forward business strategy. As I mentioned at the outset, we've been working extensively with all parties involved, including

the Abbott Group and the Creditor Committee. We understand that, of course, subjects to everyone's seen and signing off on the final form of order and exhibits, we are resolved and parties are supportive of these transactions proceeding. Again, we hope to have those submitted to your honor as soon as possible. possible. And unfortunately, and we apologize again that we weren't able to do so in advance of this hearing. So I'll pause there. I'm sure others may want to weigh in or if you have any questions, Your Honor, I'm happy to address. No, I didn't have any questions. I was just wondering what was remaining. It was difficult to follow the line. It's become quite a puzzle, yes. All right. Who else wishes to be heard? Let me start with the committee then.

Good afternoon, Your Honor. Rapp earlier, Morrison, and force on behalf the creditors committee. We're going to add, we've been leaped into the process, have been following the negotiations as they've been occurring. We wait for the revised final form of order, obviously prior to giving formal sign-off, but otherwise have no issues or concerns or objections with the overall transactions being proposed today.

All right. Does anyone else wish to be heard? Good afternoon, Your Honor. Leslie Heilman. Mallory Sparr. Can you hear me all right? I can hear you fine. Thank you, Your Honor. Your Honor, for the record again, Leslie Hall, I'm on behalf of Federal Realty OPLP, which is the landlord for the Assembly Row location. Your Honor, the recitals, but given my counsel today are accurate. We have been negotiating the form of assignment order as well as the form

of a landlord agreement with Burlington in connection with their assignment of the League. that will address the obligations under the lease and the cure costs as well. We do have one open issue with respect to the landlord agreement, which is what is holding up the order because the order goes hand in hand with the landlord agreement and the go forward obligations. So once we have confirmation that that open issue is resolved, we'll be in a position to submit the form of order to you. We have signed off on the form of the assignment order. It's really just a landlord.

agreement that is that remains a negotiation between Burlington and the landlord. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Your Honor, this is Will Farmer with Jackson Walker. Can you hear me all right?

I can hear you fine. Yes. Yes, it's Will Farmer, Jackson Walker representing Burlington Co-Factory Warehouse Corporation. I just want to echo Ms. Holland's sentiment there. We're nearly there, I believe, pending a few business agreements in the reference landlord agreement. Um, with that in mind, I believe we would request approval of the sale, but we would also be open to a continuum to the hearing in order for us to keep us moving as well as the process to seek more, um, quick resolution here. So, um, all right, I had reviewed the motion.

Obviously, I had, you know, I had followed that there were various other, you know, I had entered several stipulations and one had been a termination. And so, you know, obviously I think this is in the best interest of the estate. I think it's a proper exercise of the debtor's business judgment to monetize these leases that, you know, the debtor doesn't need any longer on a go forward business. So I'm going to approve the motion, obviously to the extent that there's a hiccup later on, um, uh, you know, Ms. Smith knows how to get back on the council. calendar and we can address that issue at the time.

But in the interim, I'm going to go ahead and approve the last remaining sales and then I'll just wait for the form of order. And obviously to the extent the form of order can be further refined and something less than everything that's before me today. If it's multiple orders, that would be fine too. But it seems like there's just, you know, the issues in dispute or the issues possibly in dispute are fairly narrow at this point. And I don't want that to get in front of the progress that's being made. So I'll go ahead and approve it.

I'll wait for the form of order. If for whatever reason that doesn't pan out, then and Ms. Smith just get it back on the calendar. Understood. Thank you, Your Honor. All right. Anything further we can do today? Not from the global debtors perspective. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Your Honor.

Thank you all. Thank you, honey.