BANKRUPTCY: Save Us from Our Debts

The doors opened at Bloomingdale's and other U.S. subsidiaries of Campeau Corp. last week, but it was hardly business as usual. After months of financial turmoil, the Toronto-based company placed its 257 American stores under bankruptcy court protection. The 6,000-page petition listed $7.5 billion of debt. Campeau renamed the U.S. operations Federated Stores Inc.; former Federal Reserve Board Chairman G. William Miller was named chairman of the unit.

The moves were the latest in a takeover saga that began when Canadian developer Robert Campeau acquired Allied Stores and Federated Department Stores for $10.2 billion in the 1980s. The bankruptcy filing will hold off major creditors while allowing the stores to remain open and pay suppliers promptly. But before it can emerge from bankruptcy, the American operation must work out a creditor-repayment plan that is likely to require the sale of at least some of the company's nine retailing chains.