IRVING, TEXAS — Affiliates of Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE: APO) have entered into an agreement to buy discount retailer Michaels (NASDAQ: MIK) and take the company private in a deal that is valued at approximately $5 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Apollo will tender an offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Michaels common stock for $22 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a 47 percent premium over the Irving-based arts and crafts retailer’s closing stock price on Feb. 26, the last trading day prior to press speculation about a potential transaction involving Michaels. The deal is expected to close during the first half of Michaels’ fiscal year. “Michaels has continued to elevate its position as the leading player in the exciting arts and crafts industry,” said Andrew Jhawar, Apollo Global Management’s senior partner and head of retail and consumer group. “We believe there is a significant opportunity to enhance the Michaels brand, store experience and omnichannel offering to its customers across North America.” Michaels currently operates about 1,250 stores across the United States and Canada and employs approximately 45,000 people.
HOUSTON — Walker & Dunlop has hired a former Berkadia multifamily investment sales team to its Houston office that consists of Ryan Epstein, Jennifer Ray, Nathan Jones, Scott Bray, Leslie Ginzel, Lauren Ehlers, Jamie VanWunnik and Chris Cassidy. The team, led by Epstein and Ray, brings approximately 30 years of multifamily investment sales experience within the Houston market to Walker & Dunlop. Epstein and Ray have transacted more than $7.5 billion in apartment sales over the course of their careers.
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — CapRock Partners has acquired, leased or sold nearly 10 million square feet of industrial space across the Western United States and opened two offices in Phoenix and Northern California, welcoming 26 new employees, according to the Newport Beach-based firm. CapRock Partners signed 10 leases totaling more than 5.3 million square feet; acquired eight properties and land sites totaling 4.2 million square feet; and sold 196,534 square feet across two properties. Additionally, an institutional investor retained the company to manage a six-asset, 1.9 million-square-foot industrial real estate portfolio that spans four markets. These transactions bring CapRock’s total investment, development and asset management pipeline to more than 25 million total square feet since inception in 2009. On the development side, the company completed more than 4.1 million square feet of Class A industrial product across the Las Vegas basin and Inland Empire, including the 3 million-square-foot Commerce Center in Ontario, California, which CapRock developed on behalf of Ivanhoé Cambridge. Since March 2020, the company started construction of an additional 2.8 million square feet and successfully received entitlements for over 3 million square feet in multiple projects across the Inland Empire. This brings CapRock’s total either recently constructed or …
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Louisville-based Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) reported that net sales for the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter 2020 totaled $469.8 million, a 12.5 percent increase from its fourth-quarter 2019 revenue and better than what Wall Street experts predicted, according to CNBC. Total revenue in fiscal 2020 exceeded $1.8 billion, a 12 percent improvement from 2019 amid what president and CEO Rob Lynch dubbed “one of the most challenging years in history.” (Papa John’s fiscal 2020 ended on Dec. 27.) CNBC reports that the pizza chain’s quarterly earnings fell short of expectations based on a survey conducted by Refinitiv, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group. Papa John’s may have missed the mark for the quarterly estimates due to higher food production costs, a new corporate office and employee bonuses, according to the news outlet. Papa John’s opened a new Atlanta office in the fourth quarter, and also gave $2.7 million to its front-line team members as an end-of-the-year bonus. Refinitiv survey takers predicted Papa John’s should have made 46 cents per share instead of the actual 40 cents it earned in the fourth quarter. Worldwide, Papa John’s comparable store sales increased 15.5 percent in the fourth quarter. …
ATLANTA AND MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Atlanta-based Home Depot and Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s Cos. Inc. both had strong fourth-quarter sales despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The CEOs of both firms cited increased demand for home improvement products as the catalyst behind their sales jumps. Home Depot’s (NYSE: HD) sales increased 25 percent year-over-year for its 2020 fiscal fourth quarter, which CNBC reports outperformed the 19.2 percent growth that analysts were expecting. Home Depot’s fiscal fourth-quarter 2020 ended on Jan. 31, 2021. Home Depot’s digital sales rose 83 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago. Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) sales increased 28.1 percent in the fourth-quarter fiscal year 2020, which also outstripped expectations of 22 percent growth, according to CNBC. Lowe’s fiscal fourth quarter 2020 ended Jan. 29. The retailer’s e-commerce sales jumped by 121 percent, while all merchandising departments saw 16 percent growth. According to CNBC, Home Depot gets 45 percent of its sales from professionals, such as electricians and contractors, while the rest come from unprofessional, do-it-yourself customers. This was higher than Lowe’s, which gets 20 to 25 percent of its total sales from professional individuals.
BETHESDA, MD. — Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) has named Tony Capuano as the new CEO. This news follows the recent death of previous CEO, Arne Sorenson. Marriott also named Stephanie Linnartz as its new president. Linnartz was previously the Marriott group president in charge of consumer operations, emerging businesses, and technology. Capuano has been with the Marriott for 25 years, and he will be the company’s fourth CEO. He is taking over the hotel corporation at a time where the travel and hospitality industry is suffering due to travel restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, Capuano stated that he plans to run the Marriott in a similar way as Sorenson did. Before Sorenson was diagnosed with cancer, he would be on the road for more than 200 days a year for work.
NEW YORK CITY — Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded the company’s expectations, thanks to 21 percent year-over-year growth in digital sales across all of its brands. In addition, the department store chain reported that comparable in-store sales during the period that included the holiday shopping season were down 17 percent. However, that performance beat the company’s projections, and contributed to Macy’s posting its first profitable quarter in a year, CNBC reported. Product categories such as home beauty and jewelry led the pronounced spike in digital sales, and Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said that the company anticipates that within the next three years, it will reach $10 billion in annual online revenue. In February 2020, the company announced that it planned to close 125 underperforming stores, or about 20 percent of its total count, by early 2023. Macy’s stock price opened at $15.31 per share on Tuesday, Feb. 23, down slightly from $15.68 per share a year ago.
ATLANTA — Airbnb plans to open a technical hub in Atlanta by the end of 2021. The company did not disclose what area of Atlanta that it is going to occupy. The San Francisco-based lodging company originally made plans to open the hub in 2019 but had to stop development due to travel restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, Airbnb had to let 25 percent of its team go. Now that travel is picking up again, Airbnb has decided to move forward with its East Coast expansion. Airbnb anticipates the hub will be home to one of its product developments teams and will become the regional base for hundreds of technical and non-technical roles over time. Atlanta was the city that Airbnb choose due to many factors, including strong educational infrastructure and supporting communities of color. If any economic incentives or credits are associated with the East Coast hub location, Airbnb plans to donate them back to Atlanta for community impact initiatives.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Six Flags Entertainment Corp. has announced plans to reopen all 26 of its theme parks and waterparks throughout North America and is now hiring team members for the 2021 season. After shutting down in mid-March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Arlington-based entertainment operator reopened 21 of its 26 parks at various points in 2020, implementing mask mandates, enhanced sanitation protocols and temperature screenings. Six Flags said that it is actively working with state and government officials to secure firm opening dates for parks in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mexico and Canada that remained closed in 2020.
By Taylor Williams The decision by Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, to recently bring its investment sales services for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market not only represents an opportunity to gain share of a booming market, but also to capitalize on a pronounced shift in buying patterns. COVID-19 has drastically accelerated demand for e-commerce services and industrial space on the leasing front. As investors that put new acquisitions on hold early in the pandemic regain their aggressiveness and as more capital sources diversify into the asset class, the line between requirements for institutional and private investors is growing blurrier. Ultimately, the shift in investment philosophy for industrial product in major markets boils down to private buyers targeting assets that have typically been considered institutional quality. This trend is a factor of several marketplace tendencies: the cautiousness with which institutional capital proceeds, the willingness of private investors to accept lower returns and the general mixing up of the Tier 1 industrial buyer pool. Like demand for industrial product from both tenants and the capital markets, the creeping of private buyers into the institutional space was taking place before the pandemic. But the overlap has become …