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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Target's exit from Canada to pressure commercial property market, (NYSE: TGT)

Target Corp's abrupt decision to withdraw from Canada is troubling news for many mall owners, as the most obvious potential buyer of property assets - Wal-Mart - is expected to cherry-pick from Target's 133 locations. Minneapolis-based Target, the second-biggest U.S. discounter, obtained creditor protection for the Canadian unit and said on Thursday it will seek to sell real estate assets, including leases for some 14.7 million square feet of retail space."There's going to be a spike in vacancy rates - there's no question," said David Bell, a senior retail consultant with Colliers International, noting the impact will also affect smaller tenants within malls."You're probably going to see some mall managers move tenants around, pretty quickly. This is going to be, 'Let's get the war map on the wall.'"Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer, already has stores near most Target locations, said Jim Danahy, chief executive of consultancy CustomerLAB. He said any big buy-out deal could raise competition concerns with regulators.

Target Corporation (Target) is engaged in providing everyday essentials and fashionable, and differentiated merchandise at discounted prices. Shares of TGT traded higher by 1.8% or $1.34/share to $75.67. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $54.66 and as high as $77.75. On average, 5113440 shares of TGT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 17294384.



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