Commercial lender to halt loans to Sears suppliers

Reuters
9:25 a.m. CST, January 12, 2012


Sears Holdings shares fell 5 percent on Thursday on news that commercial lender CIT Group will no longer provide loans to Sears suppliers to finance their shipments to the struggling chain.

The news comes just weeks after the operator of Sears department stores and the Kmart discount chain posted dismal holiday sales numbers, and decided to close as many as 120 stores.

"We disagree with their action," Sears spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said in an email to Reuters. "In fact, we'd point out that other factors are approving shipments to Sears Holdings and CIT's payables represented less than 5 percent of inventories."

A Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources said late Wednesday that CIT, the business lender run by Wall Street executive John Thain, will no longer approve credit for orders after Wednesday. CIT spokesman Curt Ritter said it does not comment on specific customers. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-cit-to-halt-loans-to-sears-suppliers-20120112,0,2044062.story