Department Store

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears Holdings Corp. has borrowed $1 billion under a new a senior secured term loan facility under an existing credit agreement from April 2011. The existing credit agreement continues to provide for a $3.275 billion asset-based revolving credit facility.

Last month, Sears said it would obtain the loan to help reduce how much money it borrowed under the existing credit facility. The new loan is due June 2018.

 

Seattle -- HauteLook, an online flash sale retailer owned by Nordstrom, announced that founder Adam Bernhard is stepping out of the CEO role and day-to-day operations of the business, but will remain with HauteLook in an advisory capacity. Terry Boyle will remain as president, reporting to Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct. With HauteLook fully operating as a division of Nordstrom, no CEO will be appointed in Bernhard's place
   

The National Retail Federation showed its Christmas spirit on Thursday by releasing a holiday forecast that calls for sales to increase 3.9% to $602 billion and assumes the President and Congress will be able to resolve their differences.

NRF’s forecasted growth rate of 3.9% is a solid figure and well above the 3.3% average growth rate of the past 10 years and ahead of last year’s 3.5% gain. In addition, the trade group’s Shop.org digital division forecast that online sales would grow between 13% and 15% to roughly $82 billion.

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Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Costco take top spots in ranking; Amazon continues to move up

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects holiday sales to increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion, up slightly from last year’s 3.5% increase. The forecast is higher than the 10-year average holiday sales growth of 3.3%.

The group noted, however, that its forecast hinges “on Congress and the Administration's actions" over the next 45 days as the government shutdown entered a third day

Across America, big-box centers are powering back up

Power centers have proven themselves to be a resilient asset class in recent years. First the recession cut into business. Then e-commerce leveled some of their big-box tenants, hurt others and ignited a downsizing trend.

Yet research from Washington, D.C.-based CoStar Group shows that only 2% of power centers have vacancy rates of 40% or higher and probably won’t recover. Another 6% have vacancy rates of 20% to 40% and are in serious condition but may recover.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will reportedly decide how it will proceed with retail plans in India this month. According to Reuters, Wal-Mart’s Indian partner Bharti Enterprises will decide if it wants to continue working with Wal-Mart based on those plans.