As consumer preferences continue to evolve with the growth of electronic and mobile commerce, retailers are facing many new challenges, often struggling to survive. To withstand today’s retail environment, some retailers need to evaluate an operational and/or financial restructuring, review and adjust their business models, and to improve liquidity, deleverage their balance sheets to reduce overall debt.
Various debt-burdened retailers are looking to their intellectual property assets as a source of untapped value for refinancing transactions. While it remains to be seen which strategies will be most successful, IP assets will play a key role in future retail restructurings. As the value of brick-and-mortar “hard” assets stores becomes tapped out, a retailer’s brands, licenses, and associated IP rights may present reliable sources of value.
