Family Christian Stores will likely keep its doors open, assuming the top bid placed in the company's bankruptcy auction process is approved by the court in June.

The five-day auction process ended in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday, May 27, with the winning bid being offered by FC Acquisition LLC, according to the MLive Media Group.

Three other bidders participated in the the closed-door auction, including two that had planned to liquidate the company's assets if they had won the bid, according to World magazine.

Todd Almassian, a lawyer for Family Christian, told MLive that FC Acquisition's bid has the support of the company's consignment vendors, who had opposed the retailer's original plan to sell its assets to the subsidiary group. FC Acquisition originally entered a "stalking horse" bid in March, but withdrew it after creditors worried that the relationship between the subsidiary group and Family Christian was too close.

FC Acquisition is helmed by Richard Jackson, who also controls the nonprofit company that acquired the retail chain in 2012. He also heads up FC Special Funding, one of the retailer's largest creditors and the third-place bidder in the auction.

Family Christian filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February after steadily falling sales sent its debt-to-assets ratio soaring. The company's declared assets are just under $75 million, while its debts are in excess of $125 million.

Another of the company's largest secured creditors, Credit Suisse, is not amenable to FC Acquisition's winning bid, however, portending more of a legal fight on the horizon. Credit Suisse holds more than $34 million of Family Christian's debts.

The second-highest bidder, a group comprised of Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC, is mounting a challenge to the winning bid, estimating the value of its own second-place bid as between $54 million and $58 million, according to court documents. FC Acquisition's bid would be worth between $42 million and $43.6 million in cash.

Judge John T. Gregg, who heard the Hilco-Gordon group's challenge Thursday, May 28, has scheduled a hearing on the proposed sale for June 8 and June 10.

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