The largest shareholder of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores took steps Monday to block the retailer from liquidating more than 80 percent of its stores.

Eddie Lampert – who owns 58.8 percent of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores and has been thwarted in his attempt to acquire the rest – disclosed in a public filing that the retailer’s board was set to vote Monday afternoon “to determine to liquidate the Hometown segment of the business.”

The retailer had 549 Hometown stores and 128 Outlet stores as of Feb. 2, according to a separate public filing.

The Hometown stores have been suffering, having posted a 6 percent decline in sales at stores open at least a year, in the 2018 fiscal period.

Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores was formerly part of Sears Holdings, which owned the Sears and Kmart chains before its recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sale to Lampert’s ESL. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores spun off as its own publicly traded company in 2012.

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The retailer has faced collateral damage from October’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy of its former parent company, citing the public’s questions about “the company’s ability to operate its businesses.”

Lampert recently offered to acquire the portion of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores that he does not own for about $21 million. But the retailer has rejected that proposal.

In response to their impasse, Lampert on Monday ousted board members William K. Phelan and David Robbins and replaced them with Alberto Franco and John Tober.

He also moved to impose a requirement that 90 percent of the seven-person board must vote to proceed with liquidation, and they must do so in two separate meetings at least 30 business days apart.