Hudson's Bay Co. HBAYF

RE:RE:RE:in the end, could it be HBC gets taken private???

[hester23]

It takes a real special kind of stupid to disregard the value of some of the earths most valuble real-estate by saying there has to be windows in each room.

The debt will be reduced thats why they are streamlining and closing stores. This is a real-estate play and it is currently discouted by AT LEAST 20 points

wheeloffortune wrote: No, there's also debt attached to these properties and you can't convert gigantic retail into residential for 1) fire code requires a window in each bedroom, so is it cheaper tear down half the building for a center courtyard if there's nothing above it or demolish and build new?  You can't do it as it stands.  So now you're selling land - debt - demolition costs; 2) municipalities usually won't let you rezone large ground floor commerical retail to residential--for one, the mill rates are usually more than double for commercial plus it screws up the CBD offical plan; 3) Office space usually rents for a fraction of what ground floor retail rents for, so that's not a good use, 4) Sears Canada owned a lot of their retail locations like HBC and shareholders got jack sh-t in the end after the trustee liquidated everything btw I still see a lot of vacant former Sears stores with nothing in them.  Why?  Are the buildings too old for Walmart??  HBC is also loosing $2.90/share which mean more debt added to the books, assuming banks will still lend them money.  Why does the SP keep falling?  Maybe, holders are starting to realize there's going to be a lot less left for them after all the debt.

hester23 wrote: Anything is honestly on the table, i've often thought about this as well. Baker takes the whole thing private. As much sh*t as people talk the real-estate can be converted into condos, hotels, office space whatever. 

Take a look at what they own - nearly every major city in north america has an HBC property in the downtown core. NYC, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Calgary, etc.

I dream for the day that I read the headline that says they are spinning this off into a REIT.