FORMERLY PE OWNED
Neiman Marcus
Includes Neiman's, NM
luxury department store · Dallas, TX
- PE Firm
- Ares Management, CPPIB →
- Year Acquired
- 2013
They stripped a billion in assets, bankrupted a 114-year-old luxury icon, and walked away with MyTheresa.
What Happened
- Ares and CPPIB saddled Neiman with $4.9B in debt from a $6B buyout in 2013 — the second time PE firms loaded up the company in under a decade
- PE owners transferred ~$1B worth of MyTheresa assets out of Neiman Marcus to themselves, later sued for fraudulent conveyance
- Filed Chapter 11 in May 2020; closed stores plus 17 of 22 Last Call outlets; furloughed ~14,000 employees
- Suppliers and vendors owed $418 million got just 14 cents on the dollar back
The Damage Done
- Seven full-line Neiman Marcus stores permanently closed during 2020 bankruptcy, including the brand-new Hudson Yards location in NYC that had opened barely a year earlier
- Nearly all 22 Last Call off-price outlet stores closed permanently — shoppers who relied on the discount format lost their go-to option overnight
- Almost all 14,000 employees were furloughed during bankruptcy, and many never returned — longtime personal shoppers and stylists who knew their clients' preferences were gone
- Post-bankruptcy Neiman's merged with luxury rival Saks in 2025, raising questions about whether the brand that once defined American luxury retail will survive as anything more than a label
Sources
- Ares Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to Acquire Neiman Marcus Group — SEC 8-K exhibit(2013-09-09)
- Neiman Marcus: A Restructuring Case Study — Mercer Capital(2021-03-01)
- When PE debt meets a pandemic — Retail Dive(2020-04-20)
- Neiman Marcus charged with fraudulent transfer of $1B — PR Newswire(2018-11-28)