Eddie Lampert And His Hedge Fund Have Lost Over $290 Million Combined On Sears Since Yesterday
REUTERS/Peter Morgan PM
Shares of retailer Sears continued to get destroyed after the retailer warned of a fourth quarter loss yesterday afternoon.The stock was last trading down more than 13% in the early session.
This isn't good news for billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert who has spent years trying to turnaround the embattled big-box retailer.
Lampert, who runs Florida based ESL Investments and is the chairman/CEO of Sears, is the largest individual shareholder the retailer.
Lampert personally held 25,120,220 shares, or about 23% of the company's stock, securities filing data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
Shares of Sears closed at $42.57 a share yesterday. This morning they were trading around $36.91 per share.
That means Lampert has about $142,180,433 in paper losses on his Sears investment since yesterday's close.
What's more is last month, Lampert's hedge fund cut back its stake by more than 7 million shares in an effort to meet some redemption requests, Bloomberg News reported.
RBS Partners, which is managed by ESL Investments, last held 26,168,272 shares, or 24.84 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
The hedge fund's stake has about $148,082,419 in paper losses on Sears since yesterday.
Lampert has been involved in Sears Holdings for several years. He's struggled to turnaround the big-box retailer. Jobs have been shed. Stores have been closed. And real estate has not sold off.
Here's a chart of the stock from around the time of the completion of the Sears/Kmart merger in 2005: