Sears looks to acquire Sears Canada

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 12/5/2005 12:14:00 PM

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corporation is proposing to acquire the outstanding common shares of Sears Canada Inc. in a transaction that would total approximately $718.5 million.

The offer of $16.86 Canadian dollars per share represents an 8.7 percent premium over Friday's closing price and a 22.2 percent premium over the average closing price since Aug. 31, the date that Sears Canada announced it had entered into an agreement to sell its Credit and Financial Services business. Sears already owns 53.8 percent of Sears Canada.

Following the transaction, Sears Canada would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings.

Alan Lacy, vice chairman of Sears Holdings, said: "On a stand-alone basis, Sears Canada's retail business faces an increasingly competitive retail environment in Canada, and the principal factor that will determine the value of this business is the prospects for its retail operations. We intend to maintain a controlling ownership interest in Sears Canada, but believe Sears Canada will have a much greater opportunity to succeed with the benefits that will come with 100 percent ownership."