June 10--Sears Holdings' shares plunged as much as 14 percent Wednesday, a day after the beleaguered retailer said that it began offering shares in its new real estate investment trust.
The Hoffman Estates-based company said it is distributing, at no charge, one transferable subscription right to the REIT for every share of Sears common stock held as of 5 p.m. Eastern on Friday. The offering will cease at the close of business on June 26.
Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert said last month that the sale of 235 of its owned stores to a real estate investment trust should generate $2.5 billion and quiet the retailer's skeptics, who have grown weary of its yearslong drop in sales and profits.
Despite the sale of its stores, Sears said it would continue operating those stores under master leases. As of January, the company owned 684 of the roughly 1,725 Sears and Kmart locations it operated. That's down from 3,949 stores Sears operated at the end of its fiscal 2010.
Sears shares closed down more than 11.5 percent, to $29.52 per share.
crshropshire@tribpub.com
