Bed Bath & Beyond plans to sell $300 million in stock, warns again of bankruptcy

(Reuters) -Bed Bath & Beyond Inc on Thursday announced plans to sell $300 million worth of its shares as the struggling retailer looks to raise more capital, and once again warned it might have to file for bankruptcy if it cannot secure the funds.

Shares of the company fell as much as 19% to a record low of 65 cents as the company said it had terminated its previous public equity offering and all outstanding warrants for Series A Convertible Preferred Stock made in February.

The embattled retailer had planned to raise around $1 billion through the offering of preferred stock and warrants to avoid bankruptcy.

Bed Bath said it had so far raised $360 million through the complex deal, repaid its loan defaults and made all interest payments for senior notes.

The latest stock offering plan comes amid a risk of losing additional funding from key investor Hudson Bay Capital Management, as the stock price continues to trade below $1.

The company, which reached an agreement with B Riley on Thursday, expects to use the net proceeds to help with strategic initiatives in fiscal 2023, such as investing in merchandise inventory, increasing store footprint and realigning cost structure.

In a separate filing, the retailer also amended a credit agreement from 2021 lowering two revolving loan amounts, one from $565 million to $300 million and the other from $225 million to $175 million.

Separately, Bed Bath said it expects fourth-quarter comparable sales to decline in the range of 40% to 50%, compared with analysts' estimates of a 26.3% drop, according to Refinitiv data.

The retailer added it expects operating losses to continue and fourth-quarter net sales to be about $1.2 billion, compared with estimates of $1.43 billion.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Pooja Desai)