Sears Canada has a fighting chance to avoid liquidation — and it may rest with New York retail impresario Stefan Kaluzny.
An auction of the struggling department-store chain has attracted the interest of Kaluzny’s Sycamore Partners, a prolific private-equity firm known for scooping up distressed store brands, The Post has learned.
Sycamore, which recently bought Jones Group, Talbots and Hot Topic, is considering a bid for Sears Canada with a plan that could include “running the business,” according to a source close to the situation.
Nevertheless, insiders predict hard-knuckle negotiations between Kaluzny — a notoriously shrewd dealmaker — and Eddie Lampert, the hedge-fund billionaire who controls Sears and its Canadian counterpart.
Kaluzny “never overpays for anything and this would be no exception,” someone briefed on the situation said. “It’s probably still as likely as not that Sears Canada goes away.”
While Lampert has signaled he wants as much as $2 billion for the 176-store chain, he is said to be entertaining lower offers.
Shares of the retailer, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, closed Monday at $14.02, giving it a market capitalization of $1.43 billion.
Spokesmen for Sycamore and Sears Canada declined to comment Monday.
Lampert, who took control of Sears in 2005 as he merged it with Kmart, put its 51 percent stake in the Toronto-based chain up for sale in May, confirming an exclusive report in The Post late last year.
Hopes for an auction of the controlling stake, which is being run by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, have been muted, with many insiders predicting a holiday season liquidation of the 61-year-old franchise, which employees roughly 20,000.
That’s because operating losses at the chain have mounted as Lampert has sold off its best locations while aggressively slashing thousands of jobs and cutting spending.
“They’ve sold a lot of the family jewels, which makes it much more difficult to resurrect the business,” said Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School who was CEO of Sears Canada from 2001 to 2004.
Cohen added that he’s skeptical whether Kaluzny could successfully introduce brands he already owns — such as Jones and Talbots — to Canadian consumers unfamiliar with them.
An initial round of bids were completed in June, and a second round of bidding began last month with meetings planned between bidders and the retailer’s management, according to insiders.
Sycamore may be the only firm that’s serious about keeping all of Sears Canada alive.
Interest from retailers including Walmart, Hudson’s Bay and Canadian Tire has been limited to a fraction of Sears Canada’s real-estate locations, insiders said.
Indeed, sources said the fragmented interest has posed a challenge for retail liquidators led by Hilco and Gordon Brothers, who have been scrambling to assemble proposals to break up the chain.