Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) shares were already under pressure after the company made another valiant attempt to revive its flagging business via a comprehensive strategy announcement – the second such attempt in recent years – toward the end of August, only to be met by skepticism from Wall Street analysts. Now, the shocking suicide of the company's CFO is adding to its woes.
Bed Bath & Beyond $BBBY CFO Gustavo Arnal, 52, is dead after jumping from the 18th story of NYC’s ‘Jenga Tower’, just days after the company announced it was laying off 20% of staff & closing 150 stores.
— Stock Talk (@stocktalkweekly) September 4, 2022
The CFO of Bed Bath & Beyond, Gustavo Arnal, has died after jumping off the 18th story of the Jenga skyscraper in lower Manhattan. The NYPD was notified of this unfortunate incident on Friday afternoon.
Interestingly, this news comes on the proverbial heels of another high-profile suicide, that of Ravil Maganov, who was the chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, and a fierce critic of Russian president Putin. Maganov jumped off the sixth floor of a hospital in Moscow on Friday. For obvious reasons, the Russian media was quick to portray this incident as a suicide.
Coming back, Arnal disclosed the liquidation of 55,013 Bed Bath & Beyond shares on the 18th of August, recouping around $1.4 million in proceeds. The BBBY executive still owned 255,396 shares of the company worth over $2.2 million, based on Friday's closing price.
As we noted earlier, Bed Bath & Beyond released a press statement on the 31st of August, highlighting a number of measures to strengthen its financial position and unlock growth.
The company intends to issue 12 million shares via an at-the-market offering. Based on the current pre-market stock price of $9.42, Bed Bath & Beyond stands to raise around $113 million from this offering.
Bed Bath & Beyond has also managed to expand its asset-backed revolving credit facility to $1.13 billion. Moreover, the household items retailer has now secured a $375 million "first-in-last-out" financing facility.
As far as cost-cutting measures are concerned, the company is optimizing its selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses and reducing its workforce by around 20 percent. These measures are expected to yield savings of $250 million in FY 2022 alone. The company has also reduced its capital expenditure plans by $150 million.
Wall Street analysts, however, have responded to the latest restructuring attempt by Bed Bath & Beyond with skepticism. For instance, BofA analyst Jason Haas contended in a fresh investment note that despite the recent influx of liquidity, the cash burn at Bed Bath & Beyond could worsen if the company's vendors reduce its payables period to 30 days from the current 60 days, thereby entailing an additional outflow of $400 million.
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