FORMERLY PE OWNED
At Home
Includes At Home Group, Garden Ridge
home decor · Plano, TX
- PE Firm
- Hellman & Friedman
- Year Acquired
- 2021
Hellman & Friedman paid $2.8 billion to take At Home private. Four years later, their entire investment was worth zero.
What Happened
- Hellman & Friedman acquired At Home for $2.8 billion in 2021, taking the public company private and loading it with debt
- Filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 16, 2025, citing tariffs on Chinese goods and unsustainable debt from the buyout
- Emerged from bankruptcy in October 2025 — but Hellman & Friedman received 0% recovery, losing their entire multi-billion-dollar investment
- Control passed to the lenders who restructured the debt — the PE investors walked away and the creditors picked up the pieces
The Damage Done
- More than 30 stores closed during the bankruptcy, eliminating home-decor options in suburban communities where At Home was a go-to destination
- About 229 stores in 39 states survived the restructuring and remain open
- At Home’s new owners (Redwood Capital, Farallon, Anchorage) are lenders who ended up with the stores when the company couldn’t pay its debts — not retail operators — leaving roughly 7,000 employees and remaining shoppers waiting to see which stores survive next
Sources
- At Home Group Inc. to Be Acquired by Hellman & Friedman for $2.8 Billion — BusinessWire(2021-05-06)
- Hellman & Friedman Completes Acquisition of At Home(2021-07-23)
- At Home Files Bankruptcy With Lenders Set to Take Over — Bloomberg Law(2025-06-16)
- At Home blames bankruptcy on tariffs, consumer uncertainty — Retail Dive(2025-06-16)
- At Home bankruptcy: store closures accelerate — Retail Dive(2025-08-01)
- At Home emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy — Yahoo Finance(2025-10-24)