Mergers & Acquisitions

By Jim Hogan, [email protected]

New York -- American Realty Capital – Retail Centers of America, Inc. ("ARC Retail") closed its acquisition of the Tiffany Springs MarketCenter, located in Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 26, for a contract price of $53.5 million, exclusive of closing costs. The purchase of the Tiffany Springs MarketCenter represents ARC Retail's third acquisition of a retail power center with multiple credit tenants.

Plano, Texas – Financial woes continue to plague embattled J.C. Penney Company as hedge fund Perry Capital cut its stake in the retailer by nearly half, selling nine million shares of Penney stock last week.

Columbus, Ohio -- JC's 5 Star Outlet, formerly the outlet store division of J.C. Penney, is winding down operations and closing its 15 stores. "Going out of business" sales will start Wednesday, offering shoppers deeper discounts than the usual outlet prices of 25% to 75% off retail.

The 5 Star Outlet stores, which had been designated for closure by J.C. Penney, were acquired by SB Acquisitions in October 2011, and rebranded JC's 5 Star Outlet.
   

New York -- Masayoshi Son, billionaire founder of tech/telecom company SoftBank Corp., has reportedly won bidding for the Tiffany Building in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo. According to Forbes, Son paid about $36 million for the 10-story glass building.

The Tiffany Building houses the flagship Japanese store of Tiffany & Co. Son did not comment on why he bought the building.

Deerfield, Ill. – Net earnings for Walgreen Co. soared in both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2013. Net earnings during the fourth quarter totaled $657 million, an 86.4% increase from $353 million in the same quarter a year ago, while net earnings for the full year rose 15.2% to $2.5 billion, from $2.1 billion.

Walgreens filled a record 821 million prescriptions which helped boost the company’s retail pharmacy market share for the fiscal year to 19.1%. 

Walgreens posted a sales gain of 0.8% for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, reaching a record $72.2 billion. Early morning trading boosted Walgreens' share price from a close of $53.80 on Monday to $56.06, an increase of 4.2%.

Seattle -- Nordstrom Rack will make its Philadelphia debut, opening an approximately 39,000-sq.-ft. store on Chestnut Street in fall 2014. The property is owned and managed by JEMB Realty Corp.
   
The new Nordstrom Rack will move into a completely renovated space that was originally home to department store Bonwit Teller and was most recently held by Daffy's. The store will occupy the first three floors of the historic, eight-story building.