A plan by a Chicago-based menswear maker to survive bankruptcy has hit a snag. Hartmarx’s main lender says a British bid for the company is too low.

Hartmarx employs some 3,500 workers and has made suits for President Barack Obama. But it owes more than $114 million to a group of banks led by Wells Fargo.

Hartmarx this month backed a purchase bid from a London-based private-equity firm called Emerisque.

A statement Friday from Wells Fargo says the banks oppose the deal. The bank says Emerisque would sell off chunks of Hartmarx, risk jobs, and shortchange the lenders.

Wells Fargo received $25 billion in federal bailout funds and generated record first-quarter profits.

Workers at Hartmarx factories in Des Plaines, Illinois, and Rochester, New York, are threatening a sit-in if creditors force liquidation.