Walmart-Target War Lifts REITs
Consumers notwithstanding, retail-driven REITs are the big winners as Walmart and Target's heavyweight bout nears. Dundee Capital Markets' RE investment banking group chief Brad Cutsey says the premium from Walmart's Tuesday announcement that it will invest another $450M on expansion in fiscal 2013 is probably priced in already. "But, with about 25% of its revenues Walmart driven, Calloway will be the biggest publicly listed beneficiary," Brad says, though he sees RioCan doing well. On the Target side, with the first of 124 outlets starting to open in March, Brad sees more than 20 RioCan properties getting a lift from renovations of old Zeller's stores and new traffic. He also feels it's safe to say the $4.6 takeover battle for Primaris was intensified by the fact it will have 10 Targets.
