(By Balaseshan) TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX), an off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions, said it has purchased Sierra Trading Post, an off-price Internet retailer based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for about $200 million in cash.
TJX expects that this transaction will be slightly accretive to earnings beginning in fiscal 2014, but that this impact will not be material to TJX's consolidated financial statements. The purchase price was financed from TJX's existing cash balances.
As part of this transaction, TJX acquired Sierra's office, fulfillment center and photography studios in Cheyenne, Wyoming, its customer call centers in Cheyenne and Cody, Wyoming, and its four outlet stores in Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.
Sierra Trading Post is a privately-held company which launched its e-commerce business in 1999. The company has successfully grown its business to over $200 million in annual revenue, is profitable, and has a strong organization of about 700 associates with substantial e-commerce experience and expertise.
"We continue to plan on launching e-commerce sites for TJX brands and this acquisition adds immediate scale, capabilities and infrastructure in e-commerce, which we can leverage in that regard," said Carol Meyrowitz, Chief Executive Officer of TJX Companies.
Peter J. Solomon Co., LLC, and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisors and Ropes & Gray LLP provided legal counsel to the company in connection with this transaction.
TJX Companies operates 1,039 T.J. Maxx, 912 Marshalls, and 417 HomeGoods stores in the United States; 222 Winners, 88 HomeSense, and 14 Marshalls stores in Canada; and 344 T.K. Maxx and 24 HomeSense stores in Europe.
TJX is trading down 0.87% at $41.98 on Friday. The stock has been trading between $31.70 and $46.67 for the past 52 weeks.