Guess?’s Chief Finds Cherokee to His Liking : Apparel: Sunland clothier’s emergence from Chapter 11 reduces its debt and preferred-stock obligations by $100 million.

Georges Marciano, chairman and chief executive of Beverly Hills jeans maker Guess? Inc., has acquired a 19.9% stake in Cherokee Inc., the Sunland-based apparel company that recently emerged from bankruptcy reorganization.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marciano said he bought 995,000 shares of Cherokee’s common stock in early June, paying $3.75 to $4.38 a share, for a total of about $4.1 million.

Marciano said he bought the shares for investment purposes, noting in the SEC filing that the completed bankruptcy proceeding is a “positive step in the direction of resolving the company’s . . . financial difficulties.� Marciano said he believes Cherokee has a good product line and valuable trade name.

Asked what changes might be brought by Marciano’s presence, Cary Cooper, Cherokee’s chief financial officer, said tersely, “We are not going to comment on it.�

Cherokee, a maker of casual apparel and shoes, filed for Chapter 11 protection in April because of its heavy debts, and problems from the recession and other competitors.

The company lost $9.33 million on sales of $73.1 million in the first half of its fiscal year ended May 30.

One problem stemmed from the $109 million worth of junk bonds that cost Cherokee a hefty 15.5% in annual interest. The company took on the debt in 1989 when Santa Monica investor Jeffrey Deutschman, Robert Margolis and other Cherokee executives took the company private in a $174-million leveraged buyout.

Deutschman and Margolis are co-chairmen of Cherokee, and their group had control of 67% of Cherokee’s stock after they took the company public in 1991. At the time the stock sold for $6.50 a share.

For the first three years, Cherokee managed to pay its debts. But by fiscal 1992 the debt became overwhelming as sales and profits fell due to the weak economy and declining orders from big customers such as Mervyn’s department store, which cut back its Cherokee section in favor of the popular Dockers line made by Levi Strauss & Co.

Last fall Cherokee’s stock plunged to a low of $1.25. It closed Monday at $5 a share.

Cherokee emerged from Chapter 11 in May when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a plan in which Cherokee’s management gave up control in order to pare down the company’s debt. Holders of Cherokee’s debt and preferred stock got 87% of the company’s common stock in exchange for much of their claims.

The plan reduces Cherokee’s debt and preferred-stock obligations by $100 million to about $90 million, but it also leaves Margolis and the rest of the management team retaining only 5% of Cherokee’s common stock. Deutschman and Margolis did not return telephone calls about Marciano’s investment.

Despite Cherokee’s financial problems, Margolis, Cooper and four other Cherokee executives took home a combined $2.7 million in salaries and bonuses in fiscal 1992.

Marciano, the designer and founder of Guess?, did not return telephone calls.

But some analysts doubted that Marciano would try to shake things up at Cherokee. “My guess is it’s just bottom-fishing and a bet on a slight upturn in Cherokee,� said Paul Davner, an analyst who has followed Cherokee for BDC Securities in New York.

Marciano also has previously bought large stakes in other apparel companies. In February and March, Marciano’s family paid more than $3.4 million for a 5.4% stake in Gitano Group Inc., a rival jeans maker in New York. Marciano’s family said that purchase was for investment purposes.

In acquiring the stake in Cherokee, Marciano used funds from a personal living trust established in 1986 as well as trusts set up for his three sons, according to the SEC filing.

Marciano did not report who he bought the shares from, and Cherokee creditors, including Altus Finance--a French investment firm that was one of Cherokee’s largest holders of junk bonds--declined to comment.