PetSmart hires advisers to help lessen debt burden

On June 7, Reuters reported that leading pet retailer PetSmart had employed the services of investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc. to help it restructure or lower its $8 billion debt. The move comes as the company is reportedly seeing profits fall.

Earlier on June 4, Bloomberg reported PetSmart transferred a third of Chewy.com’s (Chewy’s) equity to separate entities, putting the stake out of reach of certain bondholders who financed its purchase a year ago with $2 billion in debt. The company did this by moving 20 percent of Chewy’s shares in the form of a dividend to a holding company controlled by its private equity owner BC Partners and moved 16.5 percent of Chewy to an unrestricted PetSmart subsidiary.

PetSmart, that recently hired J.K. Symancyk to lead the company, will have to face debt maturities in 2022. Reuters reported the company hopes to take advantage of the decline in the value of its bonds to trim its debt burden with the help of debt advisers.