Investors Look To Gain From Sears’ Collapse By Short Selling This REIT
Investors, namely short sellers, are placing record high bets against Seritage Growth Properties, the REIT that manages Sears’ real estate.
Short interest bets reached $368.5M on Wednesday, up from a daily average of $203M in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reports. It is of little surprise that investors are betting against the company, considering Sears itself admitted it was facing end times in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing after losing $2.2B last year.
Experts said bets against Seritage could be a way for investors to indirectly profit from Sears’ collapse. Around 35% of Seritage’s publicly traded shares have been short sold, amounting to some 8.65 million shares, as many investors expect Seritage to struggle should Sears be forced to close stores quicker than expected.
