Sears hands over nine stores for $150 million

Eddie Lampert was busy again on Thursday selling off more pieces of his shrinking Sears Holdings empire — inking a deal to hand over nine stores as part of a joint venture with a mall operator.

Sears pocketed $150 million on the deal — bringing to $429 million the amount of cash raised in April in similar deals.

The latest deal, with Macerich Co., like the two previous ones, will see Sears rent the stores back from the joint venture.

It’s just the beginning of many more such deals, according to Belus Capital Advisors analyst Brian Sozzi.

“Sears needs to accumulate as much cash as possible while the real estate market remains strong,” he said, adding that most of the 31 stores in these deals will eventually share space with other retailers.

Two of the nine stores in the Macerich deal, for example, will be subdivided to include European clothier Primark, according to Sears. There are other Sears stores that share space with Whole Foods and Dick’s Sporting Goods and Forever 21, paying rent to Sears.

A spokesman for Sears Holdings, which also includes Kmart, declined to comment on whether Sears has more mall deals in the works.

Lampert has said he is “unlocking the value” of the company’s real estate holdings and that he will use the proceeds to improve the company’s online, mobile and delivery services.

The joint ventures are part of a Lampert plan to “enable Sears Holdings to continue its transformation into a more asset-light retailer with less dependence on physical stores,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

At the same time, Lampert has closed 234 underperforming Kmart and Sears stores.