Is Sears Selling Sites Just to Raise Cash?

Sears Holdings Inc. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) is reportedly ready to sell more of its retail locations.

And, reports the Wall Street Journal, many of the sites are prime, profitable locations that would be disposed of primarily to raise cash.

Over the summer, the company sold about one dozen profitable locations in the U.S. and Canada. A Credit Suisse analyst told the Journal that at least two of about a dozen of those stores were generating earnings of between $1.4 million and $3.1 million, a fact disputed by the retailer.

A Sears spokesman said those numbers are misleading, that most of the 300 Sears and Kmart locations the company has closed since 2010 were performing poorly. Less than 2 percent were good locations with good performance, he noted.

The company operates 2000 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S. and 148 Sears stores in Canada.