Albertsons to raise $720M in store sale-leaseback

Albertsons Cos. said Friday it had a made a deal to sell 71 owned stores to a real estate investor and subsequently lease them back.

The deal with CF Albert LLC would raise approximately $720 million, excluding closing costs.

Albertsons said it expects to enter into lease agreements with the purchaser for each of the properties for initial terms of 20 years. Albertsons has eight options for five-year renewals of the terms of the leases, it added.

The deal would allow Albertsons to free up cash in assets but a copy of the sale agreement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week did not detail the company’s intention for the proceeds. A spokesperson for Albertsons was not immediately available for comment.

The sale agreement lists 15 separate Albertsons entities were sellers including Jewel, Safeway, Acme, Randalls, Dominick’s and Vons. A list of the properties being sold was not included in the filing.

The deal is expected to close before Dec. 2, Albertsons said.

CF Albert is identified as a Delaware-based limited liability company but names and addresses of its representatives are redacted in the sale agreement.