Sears to spin off Hometown and Outlet stores

Sears Holdings Corp. filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 30 indicating its plans to spin off its Hometown and Outlet stores into a separate company, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune.

The retailer hopes to raise between $400 million and $500 million in liquidity through the  new entity, called Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores. Current shareholders will get the right to buy one share in the new company for each share of Sears common stock they own. The stock would be traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker SHOS.

Sears chairman Edward Lampert, who owns approximately 62% of Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears and Kmart stores, would also own a similar majority in the new company, according to the filing.

Sears announced its intention to spin off the store in late February. The public offering would involve more than 1,100 hometown and 122 outlet stores. In its filing, the company said it plans to close six Hometown stores and nine hardware stores in the first half of the year.

Hometown stores are small hardware stores operated in a franchise-type arrangement.  Outlet stores sells appliances and other Sears merchandise in a discount warehouse setting.

In its latest filing, Sears reported a fourth-quarter loss of $2.4 billion, compared with net income of $374 million a year earlier. Sales dropped fell 4% to $12.5 billion.