Sears Holdings Corp. said Thursday that it will shutter an additional 150 stores in an effort to increase financial flexibility and improve operating performance. Shares are up 5.9% in early trading. Sears announced earlier in premarket that it will sell its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. , a deal that has a cumulative value of $775 million, including use of the Craftsman license royalty-free for 15 years. Sears will generate up to $1 billion in liquidity through a $500 million loan, secured by real estate properties valued at more than $800 million and a previously announced standby letter of credit facility of up to $500 million, the company said. Sears will close 109 Kmart stores and 41 Sears stores. While these locations generated $1.2 billion in sales over the past year, they had an adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $60 million for that period. Same-store sales at both Sears and Kmart for the first two months of the fourth quarter so far have declined in the range of 12% and 13%. Sears shares are down 45.5% for the last year while the S&P 500 index are up 12.6% for the same period.
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