Hudson’s Bay (HBC) department store chain closed the first quarter of its financial year with black numbers. The fact that a plus remained below the line is due solely to the sale of a retail property in New York, which generated 817 million Canadian dollars (543 million euros).
HBC closed the measurement period with a profit from continuing operations of 275 million Canadian dollars. That was a loss of 398 million Canadian dollars a year earlier. Excluding one-off items, there was again a shortage. Experts in general also took that into account, but the loss was higher than estimated.
The company saw its revenue fall by 3.3 percent, partly because it closed several stores. Comparable sales were 2.1 percent lower.
A group of HBC shareholders want to take the company off the stock exchange. It has 1.7 billion Canadian dollars for that. It also wants to get rid of European assets, which perform less than expected.
Maurice Esma, a co-founder of EconomicInform is a freelance journalist with the expertise in international finance and corporate rights. The author can be reached by email [email protected]
