Investors Look To Gain From Sears’ Collapse By Short Selling This REIT
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Investors, namely short sellers, are placing record high bets against Seritage Growth Properties, the REIT that manages Sears’ real estate.
Short interest bets reached $368.5M on Wednesday, up from a daily average of $203M in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reports. It is of little surprise that investors are betting against the company, considering Sears itself admitted it was facing end times in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing after losing $2.2B last year.
Experts said bets against Seritage could be a way for investors to indirectly profit from Sears’ collapse. Around 35% of Seritage’s publicly traded shares have been short sold, amounting to some 8.65 million shares, as many investors expect Seritage to struggle should Sears be forced to close stores quicker than expected.