Campeau Wins Short Reprieve From Lenders : Retailing: The troubled firm now has until Wednesday to come up with $5.2 million or to work out a plan to continue operating.

Campeau Corp. officials won a brief reprieve Monday from two of the firm’s major lenders and continued to work on plans to keep the troubled Toronto real estate and retailing company afloat.

Campeau’s two big U.S. department store divisions, Federated Department Stores and Allied Stores, already have filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The parent company is now struggling to avert its own collapse, and it gained some time Monday when it signed deals with Olympia & York Developments Ltd. of Toronto and Youngstown, Ohio-based Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. to defer $5.2 million in interest payments.

The payments, due last week, have been rescheduled for Wednesday.

Campeau said in a prepared statement that it “intends to work with Olympia & York and DeBartolo during the deferral period to agree on a mutually acceptable plan regarding the continued operation of Campeau Corp.”

Richard Wertheim, spokesman for Campeau, said the company hopes to announce a longer deferral plan in the next couple of days after several technical points are cleared up. Meanwhile, the company will continue working on a new long-term strategy to overhaul its operations.

He noted that if no agreement is reached before Wednesday’s deadline, Campeau would either have to make the interest payments or do nothing and clear the way for DeBartolo or O&Y; to take action against the company.

If the interest is not paid, DeBartolo conceivably could acquire most of Ralphs Grocery, the Compton-based supermarket chain. About 84% of Ralphs’ stock, among other assets, was pledged to DeBartolo to secure a $480-million loan that the Ohio developer extended to Campeau in 1988.

But Byron Allumbaugh, chairman of Ralphs, dismissed the possibility that DeBartolo would seize control of the chain. He said an acquisition of anything more than 20% of Ralphs’ stock would trigger a potentially devastating deferred gains tax penalty of roughly $250 million.

DeBartolo “is not going to do anything to trigger those taxes,” Allumbaugh said.

“The minute that anything like that is triggered, the value (of Ralphs) is gone,” Allumbaugh added. If DeBartolo seizes any collateral, Allumbaugh said, it most likely would be other assets, such as stock in Federated and Allied, that back the $480-million loan.

Although Ralphs is burdened with heavy debt payments, analysts consider it financially healthy, and the company was not included in the Federated-Allied bankruptcy filing in January.

Separately, Allied and Federated on Monday disclosed in court papers substantial losses in the early stages of their bankruptcy proceedings.

According to papers filed at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cincinnati, Allied posted an operating loss of $19 million on sales of $77.3 million while Federated lost $37 million on $158.6 million in sales in the 20 days ended Feb. 3.

Campeau’s U.S. department stores include Bloomingdale’s, Abraham & Straus, Jordan Marsh and six other well-known chains. Campeau has no department stores in Southern California.

“Those are substantial losses,” said one retail consultant, who noted that January typically is not a very profitable month for retailers.