Saks Said to Pursue Joint Venture to Expand Bergdorf Goodman

The reinvention at Saks Global might be about to touch the Bergdorf Goodman business.

Sources said the company has had “preliminary discussions about potential joint venture opportunities” for the uber luxe retailer.

Exactly what kind of deal those discussions could lead to remains uncertain, but there would certainly be any number of players that could be interested in at least thinking more about partnering up with Bergdorf’s.

Financial sources have been buzzing that Saks was shopping Bergdorf’s to Middle Eastern funds interested in trophy retail properties, looking to quickly raise roughly $1 billion to shore up its liquidity. “Phone calls have been made, it’s in play,” one source said.

But Saks said not so fast and threw cold water on the speculation.

Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks, told WWD: “We’re not selling the business. It’s core to our strategy — it’s the data, it’s the brand positioning, it’s part of our story. It’s not something we would do.”

Metrick is in the process of “resetting” luxury multibrand retailing in the U.S., integrating Neiman’s into Saks, setting up a storefront on Amazon, extending payment terms on vendors and more.

Along the way there have been partners of all kinds. Amazon, Salesforce and G-III Apparel Group all contributed to the Neiman’s deal.

Saks also linked with Jamie Salter’s licensing giant Authentic Brands Group to form Authentic Luxury Group. Initially, that joint venture included Authentic’s Barneys New York, Judith Leiber Couture, Hervé Léger and Vince brands, which could get more exposure in Saks properties. The group is also expected to keep an eye out for other designer brands that could play a similar role.

Authentic Luxury Group is also said to be working with Centric Brands to put Saks Fifth Avenue-branded men’s in Costco.

Partnering is the name of the game at the moment and Bergdorf’s is jumping in.

For now, Metrick has some financial breathing room to push his reset.

Last week Saks lined up a $300 million FILO credit facility as well as a $50 million secured term loan, both of which are expected to close by June 30 and are from SLR Credit Solutions.

That sets the company up to have $700 million in liquidity by the end of the month — enough to fund $240 million in bond interest payments this year, the $275 million in past-due bills owed to vendors and other expenses.

“Saks is in it and we’re going to do something great,” Metrick said after securing the financing. “The most important thing to me is reestablishing the credibility that we have with our partners and synergies well ahead of plan.”