Boni, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.

Thursday’s announcement of a “letter of credit” stops short of providing an actual cash infusion, Hebert said. Rather, it provides a backstop to vendors.

Lampert and his hedge fund owned about half of Sears’s shares as of earlier this month.

He’s owns more than $1 billion in Sears’ debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The latest letter of credit also raises concerns about the holiday season, which is the most lucrative time of year for retailers, he said.

“They weren’t able to generate a ton of cash out of it — if any,” he said.

ESL Investments will provide the credit through Citigroup Inc. Sears Chief Financial Officer Jason Hollar said in Thursday’s statement that the company has numerous options for financing.

“We will take actions to adjust our capital structure, generate liquidity and manage our business to enable us to execute on our transformation while meeting all of our financial obligations,” he said.