J. C. Penney Company, Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to sell JCPenney through a court-supervised sale process. The Company plans to seek approval of a disclosure statement and, ultimately, confirmation of a plan of reorganization in parallel with the sale process. Related to the sale process, JCPenney expects to execute a “stalking horse” asset purchase agreement, which will track an executed letter of intent, outlining the following: *Brookfield Property Group and Simon Property Group intend to acquire substantially all of JCPenney’s retail and operating assets for $1.75 billion, which includes a combination of cash and new term loan debt. *The agreement contemplates the formation of a separate real estate investment trust and a property holding company, which will include 161 of the Company’s real estate assets and all of its owned distribution centers. The PropCos will be owned by the Company’s Ad Hoc Group of First Lien Lenders. *The OpCo and PropCos will enter into a master lease with respect to the properties and distribution centers moved into the PropCos.

Earnings per share for the first quarter ended May 5, 2018, were $0.17 compared to $0.33 for the quarter ended April 29, 2017. First quarter operating income was $154.8 million compared to $209.2 million last year, and net income was $47.5 million compared to $94.1 million last year. The company reported net sales of $2.626 billion for the first quarter ended May 5, 2018, an increase of 8 percent compared to sales of $2.437 billion for the quarter ended April 29, 2017. Comparable sales for the first quarter ended May 5, 2018, increased 3 percent compared to the thirteen weeks ended May 6, 2017.

"We are pleased to report another strong quarter of financial results. In fact, our operational execution led to year-over-year growth in Adjusted EBITDA and further improvement to our same store revenue trends. Same store revenue trends improved sequentially for the sixth consecutive quarter, and we remain on track and expect to hit the revenue growth inflection point as we exit 2024. Each of our digital revenue streams continued to grow over the prior year, and as a result, total digital revenues now account for 44% of total revenues." "As part of our strategy, we continued to further optimize our capital structure. During the second quarter, we repaid $24.3 million of debt, which combined with our Adjusted EBITDA growth, reduced our first lien net leverage below 2.0x. Equally important, our total net debt fell under $1.0 billion for the first time since the 2019 acquisition of legacy Gannett, and we continued to maintain a strong liquidity position with approximately $99 million in cash on the balance sheet."