Stamford investor urges Saks owner to sell off stores

Jonathan Litt, founder and CIO of Stamford”™s Land & Buildings Investment Management, is demanding the sale of the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor brands by the Hudson”™s Bay Co., the Canadian company that owns them.

In a sharply worded letter to HBC shareholders, Litt also asked HBC to make new board

appointments, saying the company”™s shares are undervalued, which he maintained adds to the stores”™ underperformance and mismanagement. Ultimately, the letter said, HBC should sell off its retail investments in favor of operating as a real estate company.

“HBC’s board has an appalling track record, overseeing more than C$2 billion (about $1.51 billion) of shareholder value destruction with a 60 percent share price decline over the last three years,” Litt wrote.

Litt, whose Land & Buildings owned a stake of nearly 5 percent in the company as of July 2017 ”“ it has not publicly updated that figure ”“ has been critical of HBC”™s management in the past. In a June letter to shareholders, which also recommended exploring a sale of its retail holdings, Litt expressed concern over HBC Executive Chairman Richard Baker”™s $54.8 million pay package.

HBC did not comment on Litt”™s latest letter.