SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) will close approximately 230 Gap specialty stores within the next two years, the San Francisco-based apparel chain announced in its fourth-quarter and 2018 fiscal year reports, released Thursday. Gap Inc. also revealed plans to spin off Old Navy, a brand it established in 1994, into a separate publicly traded entity, as well as to rebrand itself under a yet-to-be-determined name. In explaining their reasoning behind the split, company leaders cited a growing divergence between the customer bases, operating strategies and value-creation mechanisms of Gap and Old Navy, with the latter outperforming the former. According to The Wall Street Journal, Old Navy accounted for nearly half of Gap Inc.’s total 2018 sales of $16.6 billion. The new company will carry Gap-brand apparel in addition to clothing lines from sister brands like Athleta and Banana Republic. The two companies will trade under different ticker symbols and have separate management and leadership structures, as well as distinct financial profiles, company executives said. The company estimates that the closures of the 230 stores — roughly 20 percent of its total global store count— will result in approximately $625 million in annualized sales losses. Additionally, the company estimates …
