In a court filing on Friday, Wells Fargo explained why it objects to Emerisque's offer to buy Hartmarx out of bankruptcy.
The group said it opposes the offer because Emerisque "fails to provide adequate value to Hartmarx's lenders — who have funded Hartmarx throughout its bankruptcy including, most recently, up to $20 million in additional advances — and also because Emerisque's offer does not even ensure that Emerisque will continue running Hartmarx's business operations after the acquisition."
The bank said Emerisque is unwilling to assume Hartmarx's obligations to its employees, including health care and retirement benefits, "and does not even commit to rehire a specific number of Hartmarx employees."
In addition, Wells said the cash portion of Emerisque's offer of $70.5 million is subject to adjustment and likely to be reduced to less than $56 million.
These are all fact questions to be discussed at the hearing on the matter. But if the allegations are true -- that Emerisque won't pay for employee's healthcare and retirement benefits and won't even commit to hire the employees back or even keep the company running -- we don't see how this helps the employees, the lenders or the creditors. Maybe the Emerisque deal isn't all that's it's been cracked up to be.
In a court filing on Friday, Wells Fargo 
