Surfwear Chain Quiksilver Inc. files for bankruptcy, Plans to Give control to Lender Oaktree Capital Management LP

After losing 70 percent of its market value, the troubled surfwear chain Quicksilver Inc., filed for bankruptcy Tuesday and plans to hand over control to its lender Oaktree Capital Management LP.

Bloomberg reported that Oaktree affiliates will supply the Huntington Beach-based retailer with the $175 million funds required for restructuring. In the end, Oaktree will ultimately take majority stake of the reorganized Quicksilver in exchange for the chain's debt. This plan that was announced Wednesday needs the approval from the bankruptcy court. Quicksilver was obviously in a downward slope after it replaced its top executives in March, scrapped its yearly earnings forecast, and was almost delisted from the New York Stock Exchange for having very low price.

According to The Orange County Register, Quicksilver started talking to potential bidders before it filed for Bankruptcy in Delaware. It aimed for a management-led buyout where the chain would retain its stores. This move is a sale in bankruptcy that would let the chain leave costly leases. The bankruptcy led to the cutting of 80 jobs, which according to Quicksilver president Greg Healy was a difficult decision. "shortly after our new leadership team was appointed back in March, we initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the entire organization and began to develop a plan to best position Quicksilver for profitable growth over the long-term," Healy said.

As Quicksilver's US operations are going down the drain, its Australian operations remains profitable and unaffected. Its European operations also remain profitable, according to Business Spectator.

Its 2014 fourth quarter earnings reports show a drop to $401 million revenue from 2013's $476 million. Its sales in America went down 19 percent, or $37 million. Quicksilver had a $2.3 billion market capitalization. Due to share price crash and widening losses, its market cap dropped to $300 million. The surfwear chain reported double-digit percentage drops in revenue for the last five quarters.