HBC won’t hurt RioCan

Article Excerpt

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST, $17.28, is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 297.2 million; Market cap: $5.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.7%; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 186 shopping centres and other properties across Canada, including eight projects under development. The Hudson’s Bay Company, which operates 96 department stores in seven provinces, has begun to liquidate most of its stores, and it still aims to keep six of them going. As a result, HBC is set to sell most stores or the leases associated with rented ones. Through a joint venture, RioCan co-owns seven Hudson’s Bay stores. Even as most of these stores close permanently, they should have little impact on the REIT’s revenue and cash flow. Moreover, RioCan has a strong history of finding replacement tenants for bankrupt stores, usually at higher rental rates. RioCan REIT is a buy. buy…