Mergers & Acquisitions

Specialty retailer Francesca's is losing its head merchant.

CMO Sei Jin Alt is resigning to spend more time with her family and pursue other interests, the company said. The company has initiated a search for a new Chief Merchandising Officer. To facilitate a smooth transition, Alt will remain in her current role until Nov. 20.

New York -- Almost as quickly as tiny northwest grocer Haggen became a regional player by acquiring 146 former Safeway and Albertsons stores the company is retrenching and has plans to close a large number of stores.

New Albany, Ohio - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has named a new brand leadership team the retailer hopes will collectively help drive the Abercrombie brand forward.  

The new brand leadership team includes the following executives:

• Stacie Beaver, general manager for Abercrombie Womens. Having held a variety of senior positions at Abercrombie for more than 15 years, Beaver most recently led the Bottoms business for men and women across Hollister and Abercrobmie.
 

Cincinnati - The Kroger Co.is establishing two new supermarket divisions in Texas -- a Dallas division and a Houston division. Previously, both markets were served as part of Kroger's Southwest division.

Kroger is thinking big in Texas with a three year, $1.2 billion investment plan and just created a new senior leadership structure to execute the growth strategy.

Kroger’s growth aspirations in Texas will be overseen by two key executives tasked with leading newly created divisions. The retailer created a new Dallas division and a Houston division. The stores in both areas were previously part of the company’s 214 unit Southwest division.

San Diego – The ranks of publicly traded retailers are going to have a new member. Petco Holdings Inc. has publicly filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock.

New York - RDG Capital Fund Management, a shareholder of TravelCenters of America, is recommending a major financial step. RDG has delivered a letter to the TravelCenters board of directors strongly recommending a $100 million share buyback that RDG estimates would increase stock price by more than 33% to $17 per share.

Los Angeles – American Apparel Inc., which warned shareholders of poor second quarter results last week, had more bad news this week. In addition to reporting growing net loss and shrinking net sales in a tough second quarter of fiscal 2015, American Apparel said it does not currently have enough cash to last the next 12 months and shareholders may lose some or all of their investment.