The Dallas-based retailer has struggled to pay down nearly $5 billion in debt, much of it from leveraged buyouts in 2005 and 2013. The pandemic has forced it to temporarily shutter all 43 of its stores and furlough the majority of its 14,000 workers. In addition to its namesake stores, the company also owns Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow and Mytheresa.

The company said it is considering closing some stores, but did not provide further details. In a letter to customers, chief executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck stressed that the retailer is not liquidating its business.

“Like most businesses today, we are facing unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed inexorable pressure on our business,” he said in a statement. “We will emerge a far stronger company.”

The luxury retailer said it has secured $675 million from its creditors to cover costs during the bankruptcy proceedings, which are expected to last through the fall.

In its filing, Neiman Marcus said it owed between $1 billion and $10 billion to more than 50,000 creditors. It also listed assets of $1 billion to $10 billion. Among its largest creditors are UMB Bank (owed $137.3 million), Monument Consulting ($10.4 million) and Rakuten Marketing ($7.8 million). It also owes $6 million to fashion house Chanel, $4.3 million to clothing company Veronica Beard and $3.5 million to the beauty brand La Mer.

“The writing has been on the wall for years: Neiman Marcus has an unsustainable amount of debt,” said Steve Dennis, a Dallas-based consultant and former Neiman Marcus executive. “The pandemic just accelerated the inevitable.”

The company’s filing comes three days after mall-based apparel chain J. Crew filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. J.C. Penney and others are also reported to be considering similar measures as they run out of cash.

The bankruptcy filing exemplifies the unprecedented challenges facing retailers since the coronavirus brought the economy to a standstill. More than 263,000 stores across the country have temporarily closed in recent weeks, according to GlobalData Retail, and entire shopping malls now sit empty as social distancing keeps consumers at home. More bankruptcies are likely in the coming months, analysts and attorneys say, as retailers run out of ways to negotiate leases and other debts.

“You can kick the can down the road for a while, but all of these payments are going to come due in the next 120 days,” said Hugh Ray, a bankruptcy attorney for Dallas-based law firm McKool Smith. “You’ve got a situation where companies that were already failing won’t be able to pay.”

The company joins a long list of national retailers that have filed for bankruptcy in recent years. Like Neiman Marcus, many of them were purchased by private-equity firms and hedge funds in the mid-2000s, when a booming economy and low interest rates made leveraged buyouts particularly attractive. The deals were financed using large swaths of debt, under the assumption that the good times would continue and companies would grow.

But by the time the Great Recession hit in 2007, it was clear that many of those retailers were running into trouble. Consumer spending slowed, but expenses like rent and workers’ wages stayed the same. Many began defaulting on interest payments and giants like Sears, Toys R Us and Barneys New York, which were once among the most iconic names in retail, tumbled into bankruptcy.

Neiman Marcus got its start in 1907, while the country was in the middle of a recession. Even so, it was an immediate success selling high-end clothing to wealthy Texans and made a name for itself as one of the only luxury department stores outside of New York. And though widely known, with ads in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, it took 50 years for Neiman Marcus to grow beyond its hometown — with a store in Houston — and another 14 before it opened its first out-of-state location in Florida.

By the 1970s, it was on a tear, rapidly adding stores in Atlanta, St. Louis, Beverly Hills and Washington, D.C. Today the company has 43 Neiman Marcus stores, 24 Last Call outlets and two Bergdorf Goodman locations.

In recent years, though, the retailer has faced an uphill battle to stay relevant as consumers do more of their shopping online instead of in department stores. It also has struggled to grow, analysts said. Today’s Americans are less likely to fill their closets solely with designer wear – instead, many favor a mix of high- and low-end brands, as retailers like Target and Amazon begin offering more trendy apparel. (Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

“The question always was: How can we appeal to a bigger audience?,” said Dennis, a senior vice president at the company from 2004 to 2008. “Neiman Marcus has not been able to attract young customers to replace older customer who are literally dying or are aging out of their peak spending years.”

More importantly, he said, the retailer has been weighed down with massive debt it accrued in two leveraged buyouts. Private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Texas Pacific Group bought Neiman Marcus for $5.1 billion in 2005, then sold it eight years later to private-equity firm Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion.

The retailer has struggled to get out from under it debt load, even as it brings in billions. In fiscal year 2018, Neiman Marcus posted a profit of $251 million on revenue of $4.9 billion. Sales have grown for six of the past seven quarters.

“The profit margins are actually pretty good,” Dennis said, “but when you have all your earnings eaten up by interest payments, there’s an inevitable crisis.”

In April, the retailer missed its latest interest payment, according to one of its debt holders. “Sadly, Neiman’s financial distress will come as no surprise to anyone,” the hedge fund Marble Ridge Capital said in a statement.

Wirot Buaklee, assistant governor of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), said in the first two months of the year, the use of household electricity rose approximately 8 per cent year on year as people started working from home.

“However, the commercial use of power dropped by about 2 to 3 per cent year on year, and is expected to drop further from April to June,” he said, adding that the power authorities have also been instructed to waive the minimum charge for businesses and industries from April to June.

“We don’t expect earnings from the use of electricity this year to grow much because an increase in household use cannot compensate for the drop in industrial consumption.”

Meanwhile, Chaturon Suriyasin, assistant governor of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), said revenue from electricity this year will also be in the minus figures, in line with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“The Bank of Thailand recently forecast economic growth to -2 to -3 per cent, and is expected to forecast a further downward trend at -5 to -6 per cent,” he said. “Revenue from electricity will also drop similarly,” he said.

Based on the Cabinet resolution on April 21, MEA and PEA have set up ways of cutting electricity bills for households.

Households with 5amp metres will not be charged for power, while those with metres above 5amps will only be charged what they paid in February, provided their usage does not go beyond 800 units.

Households using more than 800 units but less than 3,000 units will be charged only 50 percent of the extra 2,200 units in addition to the amount they paid in February.

Households using more than 3,000 units will get a 30 percent discount on units above 3,000, then a 50 percent discounts on 2,200 units, which will added to the amount they paid in February.

The discounted rates will be applied to PEA bills from May 8, and to MEA bills from May 11.

Customers who have paid their bills at the full rate will be refunded the difference from June onwards.

AnGes, a spin-off from Osaka University, announced March 5 that it was developing a DNA vaccine for coronavirus. Thanks to a steady stream of subsequent announcements and tie-up partners and a 25% gain on Thursday, the stock now commands the highest weighting of almost 10% on the 5.88 trillion yen ($55 billion) Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers startup board.

The pace of the vaccine’s development has attracted significant attention in Japan, with the initial announcement followed in just weeks by the start of pre-clinical trials on animals. Human trials are set to begin as early as July, with a larger trial of 1,000 people eyed for September, according to reports.

“It’s hard to say anything before the trials begin, but the start line has moved a lot closer,” said ACE Research Institute analyst Tomohiko Ikeno. He noted the speed at which development of the vaccine was progressing, and said tie-ups with other firms and AnGes’ solid balance sheet should allow it to pursue the development.

“The company is working in a field it’s familiar with. It’s not as if they’re in unknown territory.”

DNA vaccines are a novel type of vaccine using genetic material from viruses or bacteria to induce an immune system response. The World Health Organization notes that DNA vaccines have a number of potential advantages over traditional vaccines, including “improved vaccine stability, the absence of any infectious agent and the relative ease of large-scale manufacture.”

But such vaccines have yet to be used in humans — and AnGes’ is just one of 100 potential candidates in pre-clinical trials.

“The problem with vaccines is that you’re putting it into healthy people, and possibly causing more harm than good,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Caroline Stewart.

Stewart used Sanofi’s dengue vaccine as an example of what could go wrong in vaccine development. Its vaccine was banned in Philippines after a 1.5 billion euro project due to safety concerns.

AnGes’ rise has lifted shares in other companies partnering in the development, including Takara Bio, which rose about 9% Thursday, and EPS Holdings, up nearly 3%.

While biotech investments can often yield high returns, the risks can also be huge. In 2019, the failed results of a clinical trial for a stroke drug by SanBio, which was then the most heavily weighted stock on the startup board, brought the entire index down and triggered futures circuit breakers in an event known as “Sanbio Shock,” wiping billions of dollars off the index.

Krungsri Finnovate’s “Meet the Angels” forum allows start-ups to make virtual pitches twice a month to investors during the lockdown period and beyond.

“We realise the magnitude of the challenges in this time of crisis, in particular for new rising start-ups,” said Sam Tanskul, managing director of Krungsri Finnovate.

“However, we are well aware that potential and capability are rarely an issue for Thai start-ups when it comes to driving their growth. Funding, on the other hand, could be their main obstacle. We are therefore leveraging our network of established investors – whose focused goal is to invest in high potential businesses – to maximise benefits for all parties involved by facilitating business matching between start-ups and angel investors through virtual pitching. At this online event, start-ups can pitch their business ideas to angel investors while receiving real-time feedback so as to find their right match for further business expansion.”

The virtual pitch is running twice a month (every other Wednesday), from 8pm to 10pm. The first event, on April 29, received positive feedback from almost 100 Thai start-ups and angel investors. For each virtual pitching session, Krungsri Finnovate will select 5-6 start-up teams to pitch to participating angel investors and be available to offer consultation to them.

For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/KrungsriFinnovate/.

CP All (Cambodia), an indirect subsidiary of CP All Plc, on May 5 entered into a Master Franchise Agreement with 7-Eleven, Inc under which the parties may agree to extend by two additional 20-year terms.

CP All (Cambodia) Co Ltd is a newly-incorporated subsidiary, established in accordance with the laws of Cambodia for the operation of the 7-Eleven business under the Master Franchise Business in Cambodia

Anant Wangchingchai, deputy director of the airport, said the project will cost Bt1.3 billion and should cover 395,000 square metres.

The airport is drafting details for the bid, while repair work is expected to start in October and be completed in 18 months. The entire project is divided into four phases.

As its theme parks began to be shuttered, movies could not be released and sports could be played, Disney saw total operating income drop 37 percent to $2.4 billion in the quarter ending March 31. Parks and cruises had profit go from $1.5 billion in the quarter last year to $639 million this year, with a loss of about $1 billion in revenue.

Earnings-per-share, meanwhile, dropped to just 60 cents, a 63 percent decline compared to the same quarter a year ago and lower than the 89 cents many forecasters expected.

Those reduced numbers were cushioned by the fact that much of the quarter played out before the crisis hit in the U.S., and many analysts and investors believe the worse is yet to come. The quarter, for instance, included only a few weeks of the park shutdowns in the U.S.

And team sports, on which Disney cable network ESPN heavily relies, were not suspended until about the same time. The company currently lacks a wide range of revenue streams for the new quarter, which runs through June; there is no timetable, for instance, on the reopening of U.S. theme parks.

“Today’s not the point,” said Lloyd Greif, a veteran Los Angeles-based investment banker who closely follows Disney. “We haven’t seen ugly yet. Third and fourth quarter is where the rubber will really hit the road.”

Disney’s executives had few answers for analysts on what they could do to stem the tide until the American entertainment economy can resume at anything close to full capacity. They pointed to few scattered revenue-drivers, such as high ratings for its ESPN docuseries “The Last Dance” and growing subscriptions for Disney Plus, as a way of keeping dollars flowing.

Instead, executives sought to paint a longer-term picture that relied on more general advantages like the trustworthiness of the Disney brand.

“As someone who’s been around for a while and led the company through some really tough days. … I have absolute confidence we’ll get through this challenging period and recover successfully,” Bob Iger, the company’s executive chairman and until several months ago its chief executive, told analysts in a call.

He said he thought it “quite possible” Disney’s properties will now resonate with consumers more than ever. “People find comfort and inspiration in our messages of hope and optimism,” he said.

Iger, the often-celebrated chief executive who stepped down shortly before the crisis erupted in the U.S. to focus on content, has retaken more of a public role from successor Bob Chapek as he tries to right the company and his legacy.

On the call, Chapek said he thought the cruise ship business, which has been at the epicenter of the corona crisis, could also rebound in the long term. He said Disney’s lines will be “much more resilient” than competitors and noted that “consumers trust our business to react in a responsible way to protect them.”

For now, though, the numbers are bleak, and may get bleaker. Disney’s film studio saw an operating income drop of about 8 percent, to $466 million, as the company was unable to release its much anticipated “Mulan” at the end of March. That film has been postponed until the end of July. The effect of other postponed spring releases, such as Marvel picture “Black Widow,” will be felt in the new quarter. The movie has been postponed from May to November.

There is no timetable for the playing of NBA and Major League Baseball games that drive viewership to ESPN.

The earnings figures preview a potentially dramatic fall for a company that just a few months ago had an iron grip on the entertainment industry. Disney closed 2019 with all five of the top-grossing movies in the world and more than $20 billion in revenue for the quarter ending Dec. 31, a 36 percent increase from the previous year. Parks alone generated more than $7 billion in revenue and $2 billion in profit.

Disney was facing some challenges, including cord-cutting and a potential slowdown in theatrical revenue, before coronavirus hit. But the pandemic has slammed nearly all of its key divisions.

The cruise-ship and theme-park unit, which Chapek until recently oversaw, accounted for nearly 40 percent of Disney’s overall revenue last year.

Though there is no timetable for the re-openings of U.S. parks, Chapek suggested that the company would go slowly, and also not reopen if executives weren’t confident visitors would follow.

“We would not reopen any park until we can make a positive contribution to overhead and operating-profit level,” he said.

Chapek did say that Shanghai Disneyland will open on Monday. He said contact tracing, social-distancing and “early detection systems” will be among the tools used to limit virus exposure. Masks will be given to staff and guests, he said.

The opening will serve as a test case for potential U.S. reopenings in Florida and California, particularly on the issue of capacity. The Chinese government is mandating about 30 percent capacity, or 24,000 of the roughly 80,000 people who visit the park daily. The first few weeks will see Disney cap the number at below even that, Chapek said, as staffers work out the new protocols.

Disney has furloughed as many as 100,000 employees beginning in April. Executives have said they will accept cuts in their own compensation. Chapek says he had no timetable on the furloughed employees return. The senior-executive salary cut will continue “until we see a substantive economic recovery.”

Disney Plus has been a bright spot for the firm amid the pandemic, with 50 million global sign-ups as of early April. Still, the company does not expect profitability from the service for at least three years. The service is also affected by production shutdowns, limiting its ability to churn out new shows that will attract and retain subscribers.

Executives said that they still planned on opening “Mulan” in theaters at the end of July, and would have the benefit of what Chapek called a “competitive movie” – Warner Bros.’ “Tenet” – opening the week before to see how consumers react. At that point, however, it would likely be too late to change release plans.

Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy declined to offer definitive comment on any shareholder dividend in 2020, saying only there was none planned at the moment and the company will address the matter again “in the next six months.” The company has provided a dividend in recent years as its stock price has risen.

Disney’s share price has dropped about 10 percent since the U.S. closures due to coronavirus became probable the second week of March. The stock dropped 2 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday with the earnings news.

The gas-fired Hin Kong plant is being constructed in Ratchaburi and will have a capacity of 1,400 megawatts on completion. The project is currently preparing an environmental impact assessment report.

The first of its two electricity generating units is scheduled to begin operating in 2024, the second in 2025.

EGAT sources said Ratch Group must sign agreements on power purchases and gas sales, but they added it would first negotiate with PTT because it wants to gain access to imported liquefied natural gas and seek more opportunities to reduce the price for gas.

“However, this postponement will come into effect after being approved by EGAT governor Viboon Rerksirathai,” the sources said.

Ratch CEO Kijja Sripatthangkura has said the company is currently considering various ways to reduce its cost of generating electricity, including buying gas from PTT or other companies and importing liquefied natural gas.

Commercial potential of the new discoveries will be assessed in the next phase.

Phongsthorn Thavisin, PTTEP’s president and CEO, revealed that PTTEP Mexico E&P Limited, S de RL de CV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTTEP, together with its consortium announced successful discoveries by two exploration wells in Block 29, located in the Salina Basin, offshore Mexico.

The first exploration well, “Polok-1”, was drilled to a depth of 2,620 metres and encountered approximately 200 metres of net oil pay. The second exploration well, “Chinwol-1”, drilled down to a depth of 1,850 metres and encountered net oil pay of approximately 150 metres.

Both exploration wells show high potential, said the company. Together with its joint venture partners, PTTEP will now work to obtain approval from Mexican regulators, preparing an appraisal as well as further development plans.

The Polok-1 and Chinwol-1 wells are located at depths of 583 metres and 464 metres, respectively, and lie about 88 kilometres off the Mexican coastline of Tabasco.

The joint venture partners in the project consist of PTTEP Mexico E&P Limited, S de RL de CV with 16.67 percent interest, Repsol Exploración México, SA de CV (Operator) with 30 percent interest, PC Carigali Mexico Operations, SA de CV (the Mexican subsidiary of Petrona) with 28.33 percent interest, and Wintershall Dea with 25 percent interest.

PTTEP began investing in Mexico in 2018, following the company’s move to expand investment in petroleum prolific areas. PTTEP currently holds two exploration blocks in offshore Mexico, Block 29 and Block 12, where it is also carrying out exploration activities.

However, sales in the first quarter was higher at Bt31.103 billion, up 5.9 percent from the same period last year.

“The pandemic has brought many challenges, especially when it comes to exporting frozen seafood to the United States and Asian countries,” a company staff said. “However, the sale of processed seafood has risen because more people are eating at home in compliance with lockdown measures.”