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- <text id=89TT2149>
- <title>
- Aug. 21, 1989: Business Notes:Bankruptcy
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Aug. 21, 1989 How Bush Decides
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 47
- Business Notes
- BANKRUPTCY
- More Than He Could Chew
- </hdr><body>
- <p> B. Altman and Bonwit Teller are not the sort of stores that
- stiff their suppliers. But since the spring, several fashion
- houses have withheld shipments to the swank Manhattan department
- stores because of late payments. The stores have been caught in
- the enormous debt problems of their current owner, Australia's
- Hooker Corp., which is controlled by investor George Herscu.
- Last week Hooker's U.S. holding company sought protection from
- its creditors under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- </p>
- <p> Herscu piled up debts of $1.4 billion building his
- trans-Pacific empire, then ran into trouble last year. Hooker,
- Australia's second largest home builder, has been hit by rising
- interest rates and sagging home sales in Australia, as well as
- lukewarm retail sales in the U.S. Herscu is now trying to sell
- off $750 million in assets, from Manhattan to Melbourne. Altman
- and Bonwit, meanwhile, are hoping to satisfy their creditors in
- time to sell some fall fashions.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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