Francesca’s Bankruptcy Sale Process Needs Tightening Up, US Says

Bankrupt women’s specialty retailer Francesca’s should scale back provisions it has requested to protect a $7 million starting bid for the company’s intellectual property, the Justice Department’s bankruptcy oversight division said.

Stand Out For Good Inc., the owner of faith-based retailer Altar’d State, doesn’t need a break-up fee or other monetary incentives to set an auction floor price for Francesca’s branding and other IP assets, as there are already three other interested parties, the US Trustee’s office said in a filing Tuesday with the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

The US Trustee also said that the ...