BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--bebe stores, inc. (Nasdaq:BEBE) (the Company) announced today that it has reached agreement with substantially all of its retail store landlords to terminate the existing leases. The cost to terminate the leases is estimated to be approximately $65 million.
As of today, the Company has signed an agreement to sell its distribution center in Benicia, California for approximately $22 million. The Company is also actively seeking to sell its Design Center in Los Angeles, California. The Company anticipates closing the sale of the Benicia facility in the next 60 days. The company has entered into a $35 million loan agreement with GACP Finance CO, LLC to make payments to the retail store landlords pending the closing of the building sales.
In addition, in accordance with the joint venture agreements, the Company has transferred both the bebe.com URL and International Wholesale agreements into its Joint Venture (JV) with Blue Star Alliance. The JV has executed a royalty agreement with a third party for both the URL and Wholesale Licenses.
The Company has also entered into a Transition Service Agreement (TSA) and Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with the third party that provides for the sales of certain inventory and bebe.com site management in order to facilitate the operation of the bebe online and wholesale businesses to the third party.
Going forward, the Company anticipates having no retail operations, and its sole operations will be the collection of royalty income from the JV.
The company was advised by B. Riley & co.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are “forward-looking statements” made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectations or beliefs concerning future events and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expected. The statements in this news release, other than the historical financial information, contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from anticipated results. Wherever used, the words “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and the company's future results of operations could differ materially from historical results or current expectations. Some of these risks include, without limitation, the reorganization of the company and its commercial arrangements, adverse economic conditions, and/or other factors that may be described in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and/or other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Future economic and industry trends that could potentially impact revenues are difficult to predict. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.
