YAY. Nothing makes me more happy than reporting on good news and $TGT's announcement that the retailer is officially moving into Canada is exciting. $TGT agreed to pay Zellers Inc. C$1.825B in two equal payments of C$912.5M to acquire the leasehold interests in up to 220 sites currently operated by Zellers Inc. Target expects to open 100 to 150 stores throughout Canada in 2013 and 2014. What's more $TGT also announced it intends to sell their credit card recievables portfolio which totaled $6.7 billion as of October 30th, 2010. The move is likely to finance CAPEX for the new stores in Canada which is said to exceed $1 billion.
My take:
While expansion is always a good sign of a retailer doing well, we can’t ignore their online business which wavered/lost market share to $AMZN during the holidays. With shopping becoming more mobile/online, how the retailer handles this will be key. Grocery business is also taking a hit with rising commodity and food prices, but having a variety category mix like $TGT is doing with the one-stop-shop is a good model for them.