“It is an extraordinarily difficult time, and as a result, sometimes there are casualties.”
-Heather Reisman, on the demise of her competitor Lichtman’s Books in 2000
Heather bet her career on Indigo, but it has been one big saga. Indigo shares are down 90% over the past 5 years. One month, she retires, the next month, she’s back as CEO. One day she’s selling books, another day, she’s selling vibrators. Customers are understandably confused. Here she is taking a definite stance on vibrators:
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Between the ransomware attack, the vandalism and “somehow vibrators turning up at its stores", Indigo really has to beef up its security. If anyone doesn’t know, Heather is one half of a power couple with Onex founder Gerry Schwartz. Gerry, now 82, is still Chairman of Onex. He retired as CEO last year. Is Heather wealthy independent of Gerry Schwartz? Heather might be the “Chief Booklover” at Indigo, but she owns 5% of the shares vs Gerry Schwartz’s 56 percent stake. The company has had cumulative losses of more than $300m over the past 5 years. Total equity is negative $71m. Gerry’s vehicle Trilogy Retail Holdings extended a $45m credit facility last year, which Indigo has been using. In 2018, the stock was trading as high as $20 and Gerry bought some more shares around that price. Now it’s trading under $2.
