Archive for December 18th, 2007
by David Bodamer December 18th, 2007
Tarrytown, NY-based DLC Management, a private retail real estate owner, has just grown its portfolio by 1.57 million square feet with a 16-shopping center portfolio deal. Edens & Avant sold the portfolio to DLC for an undisclosed amount in this owner-to-owner transaction, facilitated with no outside brokerage representation.
An East Coast private shopping center owner, Edens & Avant held a portfolio of more than 140 retail centers in 16 states prior to this announcement.
Including this transaction, DLC has completed 31 acquisitions in 2007, representing a 27% growth in its portfolio over 2006. The company now boasts a portfolio of 94 shopping centers totaling more than 16.5 million square feet in 25 states.
Story at CoStar.
Related Topics: Investment, News, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer December 18th, 2007
Given all the gloom and doom about the holiday shopping season, Best Buy’s third quarter numbers come as a pleasant surprise.
Best Buy Co., the nation’s biggest consumer electronics retailer, said Tuesday its third-quarter profit jumped 52 percent, boosted by holiday shopping and sales of higher-ticket items such as flat-panel TVs.
The results beat Wall Street expectations and the company boosted its outlook for the year.
Its shares rose more than 2 percent in premarket trading.
Profit for the quarter ended Dec. 1 rose to $228 million, or 53 cents per share, from $150 million, or 31 cents per share in the prior-year period.
Revenue rose 17 percent to $9.93 billion, from $8.47 billion last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial predicted a profit of 41 cents per share on revenue of $9.44 billion. The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Same-store sales rose 6.7 percent, helped by higher average selling price and a calendar shift that added an extra week of holiday shopping to the quarter. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least fourteen months, is a key indicator of retail performance since it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer December 18th, 2007
On Monday, Related Cos., the developer behind the Time Warner Center in New York, said it had received a capital infusion of nearly $1.4 billion from companies including the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government and Goldman Sachs.
At a time when the credit markets are still on the couch, the deal gives the private developer a fattened purse to fund future development.
Goldman and MSD Capital bought 7.5% equity stakes in Related, while an affiliate of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development the Olayan Group and an unnamed company made debt investments of an unspecified amount. The companies will invest with Related in future projects, the developer said.
At Forbes.
Related Topics: Finance, International, Investment, Mixed-Use, News, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer December 18th, 2007
Centro Properties Group stock fell another 40 percent in trading today in Australia, closing at A80.5 cents. Investors have sold off about 85 percent of the company’s market value over two days, leaving with a market capitalization today of just A$722 million.
Macquarie Bank operates two entities that own assets in the U.S., Macquarie DDR and Macquarie Countrywide. Each of the two firms issued statements affirming the trusts’ debt positions and portfolio performance to assuage investors that what happened at Centro might happen elsewhere.Overall, analysis coming out of the Australian market is that Centro’s problems are unlikely to spread to other property trusts. Centro’s problems, though, do illustrate the refinance risk in the market. As debts under more generous terms come up for refinancing, other companies will have some problems, but probably not on the scale of Centro.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on prospects of other Australian firms buying Centro’s assets. Meanwhile, The Australian said Centro might be forced to sell its U.S. portfolio for A$2 billion less than what it paid because of the change in the market.
Also, Australian banks have A$4 billion in exposure to Centro through various debt packages.
(For the original post on Centro, go here.)
Related Topics: Finance, International, Investment, News, REITs, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer December 18th, 2007
An odd result of the recent surge of Canadians crossing into the U.S. to hunt for bargains (thanks to the Canadian dollar’s strength against the U.S. dollar) has been a rise in Canadians dumping their old clothes in mall parking lots after buying new ones.
They’re doing it, in part, to avoid paying a duty when they cross back into Canada.
Some Canadian shoppers wear their new clothes home to avoid paying a duty when they cross back into Canada. The old clothes get left behind in parking lots, dressing rooms and restrooms at malls and shopping plazas in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region.
At the Fashion Outlets mall just outside the city of Niagara Falls, managers have placed collection bins near the exits where Canadians customers can deposit their unwanted items.
The clothing is then given to Community Missions of Niagara Frontier.
Clothing bins have also been placed at the Walden Galleria in suburban Cheektowaga.
Related Topics: International, News, Quirky, Retail, Trends |
