HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL—A week after announcing 103 additional; store closings across the Sears and Kmart brands, Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) on Wednesday announced a series of financial steps it's taking to enhance its liquidity and accelerate its return to profitability. Among other transactions, SHLD has raised $100 million in new financing via a term loan secured by ground leases, and is pursuing an additional $200 million in financing backed by the same collateral.

In addition, SHLD has amended its existing second lien notes, due to mature this coming Oct. 15, to increase their borrowing base advance rate for inventory and defer their collateral coverage test and restart it with the second quarter of 2018. The beleaguered retailer said it's in discussions with certain lenders regarding additional transactions to improve the terms on potentially more than $1 billion of its non-first lien debt.

SHLD is also continuing to pursue a secured credit facility, consisting of an approximately $407-million first lien tranche and a second lien tranche of up to $200 million, secured by the 138 properties currently subject to a ring-fence arrangement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The 138 properties have an aggregate appraised value of approximately $985 million, SHLD says.