Kohl's Real Estate Fetches $2B Sale-Leaseback Offer
Oak Street Real Estate Capital wants to acquire up to $2B worth of property from Kohl's Corp. and lease those sites back to the company.
Oak Street made an offer between $1.5B and $2B to buy real estate from Kohl's, and the two are in active negotiations, sources told Reuters.
Speculation about the prospect of a sale-leaseback deal began swirling most recently after talks fell through on a deal to sell the chain to Franchise Group, the owner of Vitamin Shoppe, in July. Oak Street was working with Franchise Group, CNBC reported in June.
It's unclear how many of the company's roughly 1,100 stores would be affected. At the beginning of 2022, Kohl's owned 410 of its locations, leased 517 others and operated ground leases for 238 more stores, Bisnow previously reported.
The news of the potential deal boosted the company's stock, which had fallen almost 43% since January. Kohl's stock rose 9% Friday morning, up to $31.04 per share. It has eased back to $29.63 as of Friday at 2 p.m. ET but is still above its Thursday closing price of $28.38.
The company's net sales have decreased 7% year to date, according to a regulatory filing dated Thursday. Kohl's updated outlook for the year anticipates sales to be down 5% to 6% versus 2021 due to "a weakening macro environment, high inflation, and dampened consumer spending."
"Our updated full year guidance contemplates lower sales and margin pressure from a more difficult economic backdrop and a more competitive landscape," the filing said.
Representatives for Kohl's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
