(Bloomberg) -- Arkhouse Management Co. and Brigade Capital Management have raised their buyout offer for Macy’s Inc. to about $6.9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The investors are offering $24.80 for Macy’s shares they don’t already own, according to the Journal. A previous offer, announced in March, was $24 a share. That was an increase of an earlier $21 offer in December. 

A spokeswoman for Macy’s declined to comment. 

Macy’s shares, which have dropped 11% this year, closed at $17.93 on Wednesday. 

The new buyout offer will force Macy’s board to weigh whether the retailer’s ongoing turnaround would be easier to execute if it were a private company or if it remained a public one, led by a new chief executive officer who says his plan is beginning to work.

Tony Spring, who took over in February, is shutting stores that haven’t been performing well and revamping those that have reported relatively better sales. He’s also betting on an expansion of Bluemercury, the high-end skin-care and cosmetics chain, which has had stronger sales recently than Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, buoyed by the post-pandemic surge in US demand for beauty products. 

Spring said in May that Macy’s had “a strategy that is showing green shoots.”

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