Mergers & Acquisitions

New York -- Jones Lang LaSalle’s Capital Markets group has closed the sale of four prime multifamily properties in the Dallas area on behalf of four separate sellers. The combined sale price exceeded $120 million.

In one of the stranger situations in retail right now, J.C. Penney is defending itself against charges by activist investor Bill Ackman that it’s not moving fast enough to hire a full time CEO and remedy a situation that Ackman created when the guy he picked nearly destroyed the company.

Minneapolis — Holiday Stationstores has reached an agreement with I-90 Fuel Services to convert 16 of The Gas Stop convenience stores to Holiday Stationstores, expanding the Holiday brand in the South Dakota and Southwestern Minnesota markets.

The Gas Stop stores making the conversion are located in Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Brandon, Mitchell, Mobridge, Pierre and Volga, South Dakota. The Minnesota stores are in Luverne and Worthington.

Stephen L. Hittman has been developing supermarket-anchored shopping centers for three decades. In 2001, he founded Crossroads Companies. As president and CEO of Crossroads, he has built a regional portfolio of supermarket-anchored centers valued at more than $200 million.

By Ted Vaughan, [email protected]

The year 2012 was the best year for retail IPOs since 2002 — S&P Capital IQ reported seven offerings for the year — and when we released our 2013 IPO Outlook Study earlier this year, 30% of capital markets executives expected initial public offerings (IPOs) in the retail and consumer products space to continue to grow in 2013. Now that we’re well into the second half of the year, how have those expectations fared?

New York -- Jones Lang LaSalle has added another financing expert to its growing Capital Markets team in Dallas. Industry veteran Jeff Zickefoose joins has joined the firm as senior VP. He will work with Managing Director Randy Fleisher and the rest of the team to provide strategic services to clients throughout the region.

“Jeff brings nearly 20 years of financial experience and a long track record of originating debt on behalf of leading commercial mortgage debt providers,” said Fleisher.

Brussels, Belgium – Delhaize Group reported increases in net profit, same-store sales and revenues during the second quarter of fiscal 2013.  Net profit totaled $139.2 million, up 20% from the same quarter in the prior year. Same-store sales grew 1.1% in the U.S. and 0.8% in Belgium, while revenues came to roughly $7.1 billion, a year-over-year increase of 7.1%.

New York – Law firm Morgan & Morgan is investigating potential legal claims against the board of directors of Saks Inc. relating to the proposed acquisition of Saks by Hudson's Bay Company. Morgan & Morgan's investigation concerns whether Saks' board of directors breached its fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of Saks' shareholders and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Saks' shareholders receive the maximum value readily available for their shares of Saks common stock.