Another week, another heavily leveraged spin from Eddie Lampert. Just last week, Sears Holdings(SHLD) shareholders received shiny new shares in Lands’ End(LE). But Sears received a bigger gift- $500 million in cash paid as tribute by the new company. Lands’ End, like many Sears and Kmart customers, borrowed heavily to give this gift and now will be constrained… Read More »
It was, some thought, a mismatch from the beginning. When Sears(SHLD) purchased Lands’ End for $1.9 billion in 2002, the New York Times spoke of a union of “pants and power drills”. The hope of then-CEO Alan Lacy that Lands’ End would revive Sears’ struggling apparel business was never realized. By the time Kmart purchased Sears in late… Read More »
Eighteen months after it was spun off from Sears Holdings(SHLD), Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH) announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and had reached an agreement for Lowe’s Companies (LOW) to acquire most of its assets. We had been bullish on Orchard at the time of the spin. We were wrong. In its press release the company… Read More »
Last January, Sears Holdings(SHLD), controlled by Eddie Lampert, spun off Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH). At the time, we were bullish on Orchard. We were wrong. Unfortunately, while the stock has plummeted, we held onto our small stake. Lampert, however has been smarter, as he has cut his stake in half over the past year. Orchard has struggled to maintain… Read More »
It’s an old story – when will Edward S. Lampert, genius hedge fund manager, finally figure out how to create value out of the cobbled together pile of assets known as Sears Holdings (SHLD)? Recently, Lampert has gone from lackadaisical to peripatetic, spinning off Orchard Supply (OSH), Sears Hometown And Outlets (SHOS), and part of Sears Canada (SCC.TO). … Read More »
Shareholders of Sears Holdings(SHLD) have been once again reminded that entropy is inexorably increasing, at least in their brokerage accounts. Less than a year ago they had only Sears, but since then, they have received in three separate transactions, Orchard Supply Hardware common (OSH) and preferred (OSHSP), warrants to buy Sears Hometown and Outlets (SHOS), and now, Sears… Read More »
Much like Halloween, the end of the year is also shaping up to be an extremely busy period for spinoffs. The latest to join the party is Sears Holding (SHLD) whose board of directors approved the spin offof Orchard Supply Hardware Stores earlier this week. The spinoff will take place on December 30 to shareholders as of today,… Read More »
Sears Holdings(SHLD) announced today that it plans to spin off Orchard Supply Hardware. Orchard operates 89 full service hardware stores in California, averaging 40,600 square feet. No date or distribution ratio have been set, but the company does state in its S-1 that it hopes to trade under the OSHS symbol. After the spinoff, ESL investments and affiliates,… Read More »