Saks Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, has filed for bankruptcy protection after a multibillion-dollar acquisition.

The bankruptcy filing Tuesday comes as the company is billions of dollars in debt and faces lagging sales, The New York Times reported.

Geoffroy van Raemdonck, former Neiman Marcus CEO, will return as Saks Global’s CEO. He will succeed CEO and executive chairman Richard Baker, who in 2024 orchestrated Saks's $2.7 billion acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group, which owns Bergdorf Goodman.

Saks said it had secured about $1.75 billion to help finance the company through bankruptcy, mostly coming from its bondholders. The company said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy later this year, and expects to honor all customer programs, make payments to vendors and continue to pay employees.

Also, Saks has brought on additional executives to help steward the company, including former Bergdorf Goodman Darcy Penick, as president and chief commercial officer.

“This is a defining moment for Saks Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future,” van Raemdonck said in a statement.

Saks and Neiman spent the past several years trying to find creative ways to subsist despite competition from e-commerce and luxury brands themselves.

The 2024 acquisition deal was an attempt to revitalize the three high-end retailers, some of the only department stores that are left.

Through acquiring Neiman, Baker aimed to realize his vision of creating the ultimate luxury department store group.

Baker told The Times: “I am proud of what we did, though sorry we unintentionally created pain for our partners in the process.” He added that he still believes that once Saks Global emerges from bankruptcy, “this will be a very successful company.”

While the acquisition’s success hinged on the stores’ ability to significantly improve their profitability, the roughly $2 billion in debt Saks used to fund the deal quickly became unsustainable.

Saks said in October that revenue for the quarter ending on Aug. 2 had fallen more than 13% from a year earlier. The company missed a loan payment at the end of 2025, and Marc Metrick stepped down as its CEO. Then Baker took the job with bankruptcy imminent.