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Nordstrom Coming to Tennessee Safeway 1Q Profit Up 11% The grocer earned $193.4 million for the January-March period, up from $174.4 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 7% to $10 billion from $9.3 billion in the year-ago period. Read More Supervalu Offering Rebate Check Incentives "We recognize that in today's economy, consumers' budgets are strained," said Jeff Noddle, Supervalu chairman and CEO. "We're always looking for ways to help our shoppers stretch their food dollars even further, and this is a program that we hope can help them achieve that." Blockbuster Testing Prototype Stores Tractor Supply Co. Plows Ahead However, same-store sales declined 6.5% compared to a healthy increase of 8.5% in the first quarter last year. Read More Sales Rise at Charlotte Russe Charlotte Russe reported net sales increased 14.9% in the second quarter, from $161.1 million in the same quarter last year to $185.1 million this year. Read More Sharper Image Up For Sale In a statement released across Business Wire, Sharper Image chief executive Robert Conway stated, "Given the present retail climate and specialty nature of the company, as well as the limited financing available to the company, a sale of its business and assets at this time will preserve values and yield the best recovery." Arby's and Wendy's Merge Through an all-stock transaction, Wendy's shareholders will receive 4.25 shares of Triarc Class A common stock for each share of Wendy's common stock. Read More Borders Opens Second Stand-Alone Paperchase Store Since its acquisition in 2004 of the London-based Paperchase Products, a stationary retailer with more than 100 stores in the U.K., Borders has added Paperchase shops inside more than 320 Borders bookstores. Read More Retailers Ration Rice Sales Security Breach Spurs Hannaford to Spend Millions From Dec. 7 to March 10, 2008, customer accounts in the Northeast and Florida were compromised during the card-approval process. Read More Report: Circuit City Urged to Share Financial Info With Blockbuster Last week, Dallas-based Blockbuster offered to buy the electronics retailer for approximately $1.3 billion. Read More Office Depot Re-Elects 12 Board Members These results are based on a preliminary voting analysis by its proxy solicitor MacKenzie Partners, Inc. Read More Weis Markets Set to Invest $80 Million in Growth This announcement was made during the company's annual shareholder meeting. Read More Advance Auto Parts Names Senior VP/GM Tobin will report to Mike Norona, executive VP and CFO. Wal-Mart Stores Nominates Directors Gregory B. Penner, 38, a general partner at investment management firm Madrone Capital Partners, and Arne M. Sorenson, 49, an executive VP and CFO of Marriott International Inc. are the retailer's selected candidates. Current board members Jack Shewmaker, who has been on the board since 1977, and Roland Hernandez, a 10-year board member, will not stand for re-election at the annual meeting. Pep Boys Names Interim CEO Pep Boys also announced that Ray Arthur, 49, will join the company on Monday as its executive VP and CFO. Fresh Market to Explore Sale The gourmet grocer, which operates 80 stores in 18 states, will explore outside investment opportunities. Read More Wal-Mart CEO Logs $29.7 Million in 2007 Compensation As a company, profits rose 12% in 2007. Read More Whole Foods' Wild Oats Takeover Still in Question Even though the deal closed early last year-and Whole Foods has since sold 35 Wild Oats stores and closed 12-the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is trying again to stop Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods' takeover of Wild Oats. Read More Report: Wilsons Leather Raises Possibility of Bankruptcy The company's independent accounting firm said it has "substantial doubt" about the company's ability to stay in business, according to an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read More Retail Sales Up 7.1% in Latest Week On a week-over-week comparison, sales also increased for the week ending April 19 as compared to the previous week ending April 12, rising a slight 1.4%. Read More Survey: Mother's Day Spending Expected to Equal '07 The NRF survey showed consumers on average are going to spend $138.63 on Mother's Day shopping this year, a drop of less than 1% from last year ($139.14). Read More Report: Linens 'n Things Paying Vendors Before Delivery The company said that it took the out-of-the-norm and costly move of paying its largest vendors cash even before the products arrive in stores, the report said. Read More Safeway Embraces Solar Power on Earth Day Safeway unveiled the new power systems at stores in Fairfield, Calif., and Placerville, Calif., two of the 23 stores in the state being converted to solar power. The solar systems reduce the stores' reliance on traditional fossil fuels, the emissions of which most scientists implicate as the chief cause of global warming. Read More Office Depot Enters India Market in Joint Venture The joint venture between Office Depot and Reliance Retail Ltd. has purchased eOfficePlanet, an Indian dealer of office products and services, to help speed up the rollout of its operation. Read More Best Buy Names CFO Muehlbauer also was named executive VP, finance. He joined the company in 2002 and formerly worked at Pillsbury Co. Read More Wal-Mart Tops Fortune 500 U.S. List Wal-Mart, with 2007 revenues of $378.8 billion-up 7.9% from the previous year-retained its lead over ExxonMobil with $372.8 billion in revenue. Read More Home Depot Names Chief Marketing Officer officer. He will have full responsibility for the strategic marketing vision of Home Depot along with category marketing and brand development. He will join the company April 28. Read More Bank of America Won't Renew Sears Credit Agreement Sears said most of its outstanding credit is issued under its $4 billion, five-year revolving credit facility which expires March 2010, which has a $1.5 billion letter of credit sublimit. Read More Circuit City Launches Green Site The site enables consumers to research and shop for products that have earned ENERGY STAR designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It also offers tips for recycling electronics, saving energy, and spotlights Circuit City's trade-in program, which allows consumers to turn in old electronics in exchange for Circuit City gift cards. GameStop President Resigns Morgan "has made the decision to reapply his energy and drive outside of the company," said GameStop spokesman Chris Olivera. Read More Report: Blockbuster Weighing Options to Fund Circuit City Bid Blockbuster is also considering using its existing debt facility, possible asset sales and cost savings for the deal, the report said. Read More Report: Fresh & Easy Plans More Las Vegas Stores The new Las Vegas stores will give Fresh & Easy, which is operated by Cheshunt, U.K.-based Tesco PLC, a total of 25 stores in the region. The grocer currently operates more than 60 stores across Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Read More Sears, Kmart to Offer Stimulus Bonus The program, which will run May 14 to July 19, will be available at any Sears, Kmart or Lands' End retail store, as well as online at www.sears.com and www.landsend.com. Read More Wendy's Rejects Two Buyout Offers The filing said Triarc's proposal called for the combination of Wendy's and Arby's. Read More FTC Lifts Waiting Period on O'Reilly, CSK Merger Under an agreement announced on April 1, the acquisition will entitle CSK shareholders to $11 of O'Reilly common stock, and $1 cash for every share of CSK stock they currently hold. The acquisition is expected to be complete this summer. Abercrombie Enters Into Credit Agreement The specialty retailer said that under the lifetime of the new agreement, which matures in April 2013, it can request additional credit. However, these requests cannot exceed $150 million in the aggregate. Read More Woodbridge Withdraws Office Depot Nominees The Woodbridge Group, which is comprised of Woodbridge Equity Fund LLLP and homebuilder Levitt Corp., has loudly criticized Office Depot's performance. It had planned to nominate the directors at the company's annual meeting next Wednesday. Read More OfficeMax to Close Mini Chicago Stores Ranging in size from 2,500 to 3,000 sq. ft., the stores focused on smaller items, but promised one-day delivery of larger products from full-size stores. Blockbuster Sued For Privacy Violation Texas resident, Cathryn Elaine Harris, is claiming that Blockbuster Inc. transmitted her personal information to Facebook.com through the Web site's Beacon marketing program. Harris alleged that Beacon, which Facebook launched last November, got the information from Blockbuster through computer-tracking programs without her permission. Read More Talbots Backs 2008 Outlook; Sees Sufficient Funding Talbots said it revised its payment terms with major vendors, giving it enhanced financial flexibility and increased operating cash flow. Read More |
Posted by: Richard
As far as Southern California retail goes, we have been evaluating the differences between cap rates today versus early last summer before the credit crunch. In some markets it will be as long as 12-18 months ago (Inland Empire as an example). The GENERAL consensus, as far as we can tell, ranges from 25-50 bp higher for high quality assets in the best markets. For secondary markets, 75-150 bp (wow!) and marginal assets in unfavorable markets just aren't selling. We also have been running band of investment models that seem to support these conclusions.
Another problem we are seeing are newly leased retail centers in outlying markets. In these cases, the rents were negotiated at the peak of the market and sales may not be happening as the tenants expected. Proposed retail in outlying markets? Forget it.
Posted by: Richard
The CB Capital Markets Group publishes this once a month. Looks like they believe the CBMS industry is remain effectively dead this year (at least relative to last year). A good number of my CMBS clients are no longer employed. Here's the eNews:
"Foreign investors favored the Manhattan and Washington D.C. commercial real estate markets last year, and despite falling property values, those markets could set a baseline for market pricing in the near future. The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate’s Investment Survey reported New York City and Washington, D.C. first and third, respectively, as the top five global cities for foreign investment last year. London was second. According to Real Capital Analytics, many sellers in the United States have not come to grips that their assets could be worth 15 percent less than last year. The faster sellers recognize that, the faster the market could clear and capital could come back in.
The CMA reported that analysts have lowered their projection for this year's domestic CMBS volume to $25 billion from $70 billion three months ago. So far this year, $7.8 billion of deals have priced and another $7.5 billion is in the pipeline to be priced in the coming months. Investment banks also hold a massive inventory of float-in-grate loans that are waiting to be securitized.
The recent narrowing of U.S. credit spreads is an important step in the recovery process. It outweighs the continuing turmoil in short-term LIBOR spreads in the U.S. and Europe, according to Bear Stearns. From a U.S. GDP standpoint, the decline in the LIBOR rate (and the narrowing of credit spreads) outweigh the wider LIBOR spread -- the LIBOR rate is used to price many variable-rate corporate and mortgage loans, while the spread is important in the profitability of certain types of lending. On April 21, the Bank of England announced an important new 50 billion pound swap facility, which should help some with the wide sterling-LIBOR rate.
According to the REA, the next FOMC meeting at the end of the month will likely produce another 25 basis point rate cut, bringing down the fed funds rate to 2.0 percent. While a bigger cut cannot be ruled out, it is less likely. The economy is weakening but it appears that it is not collapsing."
Posted by: Richard
Posted by: Richard
Posted by: Richard
Some good observations from CBRE Capital eNews, 4-8-2008:
"Industry participants continue to express frustration as capital market panic and negative headlines overshadow relatively strong fundamentals in the commercial real estate and commercial mortgage-backed securities market. “The anticipated increase in commercial mortgage losses has caused the credit markets to significantly overestimate the potential for future default rates,” said Jon Southard, Director of debt management and valuation for CBRE/Torto Wheaton Research. “The reality is that commercial real estate markets remain sound, with low vacancy levels and construction moderate in all but a few markets. Despite the slowdown in the economy, all major property types are expected to have positive—if lower—rental growth rates this year.”
Fitch said refinancing activity continues at a strong and steady pace this year as demonstrated by the successful payoff of 1,273 loans during the first two months of the year. The fact that $8.2 billion of U.S. CMBS loans have already refinanced in 2008 shows the commercial real estate market debt continues to function so far this year. Fitch noted that low leverage and high existing coupons contributed to the ability of loans to refinance in a more restrictive lending environment with new lenders, typically insurance companies and regional banks.
According to the MBA, there's been a general impression that a large volume of commercial/multifamily mortgages are coming due this year and next. The reality is that 2008 and 2009 will see a relatively small volume of maturing mortgages, with the majority of commercial mortgage-backed securities loans not maturing until 2015 or later.
The CMA states, data from the first quarter of 2008 reflects the difficulty in issuing deals, despite the near historically wide current spread levels. The market saw only about $4.5bn in fixed rate conduit issuance, down from over $28bn in the 4Q of last year and nearly $60bn in 2Q 2007."
Posted by: Richard
