Real estate spinoffs unlock hidden value

Article Excerpt

These two retailers recently set up their land and buildings as real estate investment trusts (REITs). That’s helping them fund acquisitions to better compete with U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which are expanding in Canada. LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $44 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 282.1 million; Market cap: $12.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) has transferred the bulk of its real estate assets to a new real estate investment trust called Choice Properties REIT (Toronto symbol CHP.UN). It then sold 18.3% of this REIT to the public for $460 million. The cash will help Loblaw fund its takeover of Shoppers Drug Mart (Toronto symbol SC), which operates 1,240 drugstores across Canada. Loblaw will pay $12.5 billion in cash and shares when the deal closes, probably in the first quarter of 2014. Loblaw will operate Shoppers as a separate chain and won’t close any stores. That makes sense,…