RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) had planned to close 1,100 stores. Lenders including GE Capital blocked the plan and forced the company to cut back the number to 200. With a total store count of 4,300, that new figure is close to nothing. And RadioShack, with massive losses, has to be operating in the red at more than 200 locations.
The need to close a large number of locations is not hard to make financially. RadioShack’s revenue was $4.2 billion in 2010. Last year, that dropped to $3.3 billion. RadioShack earned $206 million in 2010. Last year, it lost $400 million. With losses like that, the company is probably not viable, at least as it is constituted now. That is the view of Wall Street. Its stock trades at a pathetic $1.47, down 70% in two years, against an S&P 500 increase of 30% over the same period. With a market cap of only $147 million, RadioShack trades like a candidate for Chapter 11, which it probably is.
RadioShack’s creditors can be certain of one thing. If the company does go into bankruptcy, common shareholders will bear the burden of losing all of their money. Lenders may lose nothing — one of the advantages of that status.
The brick-and-mortar retail business is like airlines were for generations. The best way to scrub balance sheets is via bankruptcy. It is also the best way to eliminate unwanted assets, which often include people, if they can be referred to that way. The move to block the RadioShack store closings may be a move by creditors to control the company, and its future, by eliminating its status as a public corporation. No shareholders to bother with. No SEC filings. No prying eyes.
RadioShack’s stock may well trade for pennies very soon, particularly if its next quarterly report looks like its full year 2013 did. Management will no longer report to a board, and ultimately public shareholders, because there won’t be any.
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