Federated's Fingerhut sale falls through

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 5/13/2002 12:00:00 AM

CINCINNATI —

Federated Department Stores and Business Development Group Acquisitions have mutually announced the termination of their negotiations for the sale of Federated's Fingerhut division.

The two companies said that the difficult economic environment for acquisition financing led to the joint decision.

Ron Tysoe, Federated's vice chairman, said that Federated would now pursue opportunities to sell individual assets of Fingerhut and shut down all operations of the Fingerhut catalog over the next 30 days.

No other potential buyers have surfaced since Federated announced in January that it wanted to sell the Fingerhut operation. However, it expects to sell the catalog subsidiaries Arizona Mail Order, Figi's and Popular Club as going concerns, he said.

The company expects its disposition and monetization of Fingerhut's assets to generate approximately $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion of after-tax cash proceeds (net of one-time costs) over the next four years.