HBC has ample cash to go private says activist investor: Reuters
Hudson’s Bay Co, owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue brand, is in a good position to go private following the sale of its Lord & Taylor flagship building in New York and an investment from Rhône Capital, activist investor Jonathan Litt wrote in a letter released this week. Management and insiders would need less than $400 million in additional capital to buy the 92 million shares they don’t already own at $18 per share to take it private, Litt said in the letter. The Canadian department store operator, which has been battling seven quarters of losses, agreed in October to sell the Lord & Taylor building to WeWork Cos for US$850 million, with U.S. private equity firm Rhône investing an additional US$500 million as part of the deal. Litt’s Land and Buildings hedge fund, which held a near 5 percent stake in Hudson’s Bay as of July, has been pressing the company to boost its sliding share price by extracting value from its sizeable real estate holdings.
