Hudson’s Bay Co. HBC -2.54% reported a wider loss and lower sales in the latest quarter as the department-store operator faced challenges in luxury sales and gaining back market share in Canada amid competing bids to take the company private.
The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and other department-store chains on Tuesday posted fiscal third-quarter revenue of 1.84 billion Canadian dollars ($1.39 billion), down from C$1.89 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable sales, or those at stores operating for at least 13 months, declined 1.7%. Digital sales rose 15% from a year ago.
The company’s loss widened to C$226 million from C$161 million in the comparable period last year. On a per-share basis, the company booked a loss of C$1.23, compared with a loss of C$0.88 in the year-ago period.
Hudson’s Bay sold its remaining stakes in a European real estate and retail joint venture for C$1.5 billion during the quarter, a move the company said weighed on its profitability along with strategic changes in vendor relationships.
“We must quicken the pace of improvement while bearing the ongoing costs of our strategic portfolio reset and the headwinds impacting our industry,” Chief Executive Helena Foulkes said Tuesday.
In October, an investor group led by Hudson’s Bay Executive Chairman Richard Baker agreed to pay C$10.30 a share in cash for the 43% stake in the retailer that it didn’t already own. Mr. Baker’s offer, which was increased from earlier in the year, valued the company at roughly $1.4 billion.
Last month, however, Canadian private-equity firm Catalyst Capital Group, a major investor of Hudson’s Bay, made a $1.5 billion bid, or C$11 a share, to take over the company, seeking to derail plans for the management-led buyout. Catalyst said the proposal from the existing shareholder group undervalued the company.
Hudson’s Bay has scheduled a shareholder vote on Mr. Baker’s buyout proposal for Dec. 17. It needs the support of a majority of independent shareholders who cast their ballots to proceed.
The company has struggled with problems that have affected many retailers, including the shift to e-commerce and the rise of new online competitors. In addition to Saks, the company owns the Hudson’s Bay department-store chain in Canada. It recently sold the Lord & Taylor chain to startup Le Tote. It operates more than 300 stores.
For the latest quarter, Saks Fifth Avenue’s comparable sales fell 2.3%, compared with a 7.3% increase in the year-ago period.
“With last year’s historically high comparable sales growth for Saks, we knew the third quarter would be challenging,” Ms. Foulkes said. “Across the industry, there was a pullback among luxury consumers, allowing shoppers to more frequently take advantage of markdowns, which ultimately reduced full-price sales.”
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com
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