By Nick Brown and Ramkumar Iyer
(Reuters) - Troubled electronics retailer RadioShack Corp (N:RSH), whose shares swung wildly on Wednesday, is being advised by a restructuring attorney at law firm Jones Day as it tries to strike a deal with creditors to close stores while averting bankruptcy, two people close to the matter told Reuters.
The company, whose share price on Wednesday swung between 76 cents and $1.09 in a chaotic day of trading, is being advised by Jones Day's David Heiman, a retail expert who led Allied Stores and Boscov's Department Stores through bankruptcy, said the people, who declined to be named because the matter is not public.
The company is working on a financing deal it hopes will help it avoid bankruptcy, the people said. Bloomberg News reported that the deal would be financed by UBS AG (AG:UBS) and Standard General LP, and would refinance RadioShack's $535 million asset-backed revolving credit line from General Electric Co's (N:GE) GE Capital.
RadioShack's landlords may be open to a mass store closure if they believe it would allow them to find new tenants more quickly than in a bankruptcy, which could take months or years and lead to messy litigation, said one of the people.
RadioShack tried to close 1,100 stores this year, but reduced that number to 200 when lenders did not agree to the plans.
RadioShack and Heiman declined to comment on Wednesday. The company is also being advised by financial advisers at Peter J. Solomon Co and turnaround experts at AlixPartners.
A third source told Reuters many creditors are "in the dark" on talks, suggesting discussions could be narrow in scope and still in early stages.
Many analysts believe a bankruptcy is unavoidable for the one-time electronics giant that has struggled to modernize.
Its stock plummeted as much as 20 percent to 76 cents earlier on Wednesday after Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the company could file for bankruptcy soon, making the stock worthless by the end of this year. The stock has fallen from a high of $78 at the peak of the dotcom boom.
Pachter, rated four stars out of five by StarMine for the accuracy of his calls on RadioShack, is the second top-rated analyst to cut the stock's price target to zero this year.
RadioShack, which has been around for more than 90 years, was once a go-to shop for budding innovators and engineers for products that ranged from vacuum tube speakers to the first mass-produced PC.
But the retailer has done little to transform itself into a destination for mobile phone buyers, losing out to rivals such Amazon.com Inc (O:AMZN) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (N:WMT).
Pachter, who previously had a price target of $1, said he was lowering the target as declining sales of consumer electronics and falling margins were likely to force the company to seek bankruptcy protection to turn around its business.
(Reporting by Nick Brown in New York and Ramkumar Iyer in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Cynthia Osterman)