Charming Shoppes will issue credit card debt from its Charming Shoppes Master Trust for the first time in two years come July, sources said, as the firm will come to market with a $100 million Bear Stearns-led deal.
Bensalem, Pa.-based Charming Shoppes operates Fashion Bug and Fashion Bug Plus women's apparel stores throughout the U.S. The firm first entered the asset-backed market in 1994 with a $200 million J.P. Morgan-led transaction. After a three-year absence, Charming Shoppes reentered the market in 1997 via CIT with a more diminutive $83 million deal.
The upcoming deal will contain floating rate securities split into two "A" and "B" tranches. Bear Stearns will manage all of the B class, but will share underwriting duties on the A-class with co-leads J.P. Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney.
Charming Shoppes earned $1.1 billion in revenue for fiscal year 1998. - SK
