Elder-Beerman Finds Buyer

The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. (Dayton, Ohio) has entered into a definitive merger agreement providing for the sale of the struggling department store company to Wright Holdings Inc., a company formed to carry out the merger, currently owned solely by Marathon Fund Limited Partnership IV, a private investment fund managed by Goldner Hawn, Johnson & Morrison Inc. (Minneapolis).

The merger agreement provides that the shareholders of Elder-Beerman will receive $6.00 per share in cash for their common shares.

After completion of the proposed merger, Elder-Beerman will continue to be headquartered in Dayton and will operate as a private company. It is expected that the current Elder-Beerman senior management team led by president and ceo Byron (Bud) Bergren will remain in place and will have an opportunity to acquire an equity interest in Wright Holdings. It is anticipated that immediately after the merger, current management of the company will own 10% of Wright Holdings.

“I am delighted that our headquarters will remain in Dayton and that we can continue to execute our new format store strategy, which should provide additional opportunities for our associates,” said chairman Steven Mason.

Elder Beerman, the nation's ninth largest independent department store chain, announced in May that it was looking for a buyer. It operates 68 stores in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and expects to expand into Iowa in November. Formed in 1962 as a moderate-priced apparel, cosmetics and home furnishings retailer in small-to-midsize Midwestern cities, it operated under bankruptcy protection from 1995 to 1997.