Lowe Buys Rona

[SkyRider]

Apparently, the Quebec government was notified only after the market closed last night. Lowe is funding the purchase by converting USD's to the much lower valued CAD.

The Rona shareholders should take the money and run. (Take a lesson from the Potash shareholders who rejected the BHP bid. http://www.mining.com/bhp-going-after-potashcorp-again-report-26621/)

 

[notthemama]

Can't stand Rona. Maybe they'll improve.

 

[destillat]

Can't stand Rona. Maybe they'll improve.

I agree... so many times I would go to Rona to support Canadian and I would be met with them being totally out of stock or partially out of stock of what I was looking for, so I would have to go to HD anyways.
Finally decided to streamline and just go straight to HD.
It was a shame.

 

[james t kirk]

Of the 3 big box home reno retailers, Lowes is the best. Home Depot is in the middle, and Rona is at the bottom.

That said, if you break it down by categories, it's all over the place.

Rona is the best for lumber, heavy structural stuff, and knowledge of staff with respect to heavy structure by far. Rona is also best for lumber.

Rona is at the bottom for electrical and plumbing.

Rona very very much depends on which store you go to. Belfield and Martin Grove is fantastic and Dundas and Royal York is very good. Better than any Lowes or Home Depot (both are former Lansing buildalls). Rona Stock yards is shit all round - disorganised, dirty, dickheads working there, stuff not neat, never anyone there.

HD is very convenient for me and I know where everything is.

HD is also best for tools by far.

Lowes carries the best names, more diverse offerings and stores are the cleanest. Lowes also offers the best promotions, with Rona second and HD almost nothing.

HD return policy is generous to say the least. They seldom give you a hard time returning things. If you don't have the receipt, they scan your credit card and know that you bought it there, or they will give you a store credit.

The thing is with Rona, many of their stores are too small, or were old Lansings that got converted to Ronas maybe 10 years ago or so. I don't know how this is going to work. Fo example, the Rona on Dundas at Royal York is ancient, but has a great lumber yard. Way too small to be converted to a Lowes and the lot is too small to do a tear down and rebuild. I can only guess it will be shuttered, or maybe sold off.

 

[eldoguy]

Construction is all most over!

http://www.improvecanada.com/

 

[lomotil]

Home Depot Canada futures must have just taken a hit even though the parent company is in America. Maybe the Canadian operation will up their game to compete with Lowes.

 

[bluecolt]

From the outside, it appears that Lowe's is purchasing Rona strictly to eliminate a competitor with the eventual goal of closing all of the Rona stores. I'm basing this on past events like the purchase and eventual closing of all Future Shops after the chain was acquired by Best Buy chain from the U.S. and the purchase of the Casey's chain by Cara Foods. In both cases, they milked all of the money and inventory out of the purchased chains and shut them down to eliminate similar competitors. This would seem to be the logical scenario because Rona is not particularly profitable and its stores are not at all large enough to handle a Lowe's changeover.

 

[james t kirk]

From the outside, it appears that Lowe's is purchasing Rona strictly to eliminate a competitor with the eventual goal of closing all of the Rona stores. I'm basing this on past events like the purchase and eventual closing of all Future Shops after the chain was acquired by Best Buy chain from the U.S. and the purchase of the Casey's chain by Cara Foods. In both cases, they milked all of the money and inventory out of the purchased chains and shut them down to eliminate similar competitors. This would seem to be the logical scenario because Rona is not particularly profitable and its stores are not at all large enough to handle a Lowe's changeover.

Future shop may be gone as an entity, however, many if not most stores were simply rebranded as Best buy .

I have seen your example in the case of Whirlpool buying Maytag and a host of others. Whirlpool simply shut down everything Maytag. Every factory, every engineering centre, every warehouse, etc. It's gone. They simply slap a Maytag badge on a whirlpool unit. This is entirely possible with manufacturing. Not possible when it comes to a brick and mortar store. Lowes is limited in the Canadian market.

 

[jcpro]

Of the 3 big box home reno retailers, Lowes is the best. Home depot is in the middle, and Rona is at the bottom.

That said, if you break it down by categories, it's all over the place.

Rona is the best for lumber, heavy structural stuff, and knowledge of staff with respect to heavy structure by far. Rona is also best for lumber.

Rona is at the bottom for electrical and plumbing.

Rona very very much depends on which store you go to. Belfield and Martin Grove is fantastic and Dundas and Royal York is very good. Better than any Lowes or Home Depot (both are former Lansing buildalls). Rona Stock yards is shit all round - disorganised, dirty, dickheads working there, stuff not neat, never anyone there.

HD is very convenient for me and I know where everything is.

HD is also best for tools by far.

Lowes carries th best names, mor diverse offerings and stores are th cleanest. Lowes also offers a best promotions, with Rona second and HD almost nothing.

HD return policy is generous to say the least.

Th thing is with Rona, many of their stores are too small, or were old Lansings that got converted. I don't know how this I going t work. Fo example, th Ron on Dundas at Royal York is ancient, but ha ha great lumber yard. Way too small to be a Lowes

There's something wrong with Rona@Martin Grove. When we need something from their yard, we get the invoice and, instead of waiting for their slow as shit staff, we just go and pick it ourselves. They have a person at the gate, but it must be an honorary position, he and she never bother. I do like going there, a couple of guys at the contractor's desk do know their shit But, Rona's for odds and ends. For concrete supplies there's National or F@B or Mason's, lumber-Hanford- I prefer specialized suppliers.

 

[onceaday]

You guys kill me. who cares about RONA? Stores were always a disaster very bad real estate deals/locations, idiot management. Garbage outfit. So unless you got your butt out of bed @5am today saw the news, grabbed shares pre-market and made 70-98 % on your money why would u care? BTW FUJI you for sure missed this one as with $AYA so go buy an ETF. JCPRO I do wish you had seen this one coming. You could have made some serious cash.

 

[SkyRider]

The jokers in the deck is what will the Quebec and federal governments do? Lowe is an American company.

Remember what happened with Potash. The Saskatchewan and federal governments and the CEO killed the BHP offer. At least the Rona CEO is onside (how much does he/she stand to make?).

 

[james t kirk]

The jokers in the deck is what will the Quebec and federal governments do? Lowe is an American company.

Remember what happened with Potash. The Saskatchewan and federal governments and the CEO killed the BHP offer. At least the Rona CEO is onside (how much does he/she stand to make?).

The Lowes offer was rejected once by the Quebec government, however, this offer is substantially more.

I think it's a done deal.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

In 2012 Pauline Marois put the kibosh on a Lowe's take over of Rona. When Marois got the muddy boot to the ass the birdies in the know were already taking about Lowe's returning with another bid to take over Rona. Now they have made a very attractive bid and P i e r r e Karl Péladeau can carp all he wants. This bid will go through.

Lowe's has promised a 100% premium over the today's stock price. All existing stores will remain under the Rona and Reno Depot banners. New Lowe's stores will be built and the head office for Canada will be in Quebec. ( for now, anyways ) Even the very nationalist ( separatist ) Caisse de Depot ( Quebec pension fund management organization ) has a hard on for the deal.

You guys kill me. who cares about RONA? Stores were always a disaster very bad real estate deals/locations, idiot management. Garbage outfit. So unless you got your butt out of bed @5am today saw the news, grabbed shares pre-market and made 70-98 % on your money why would u care? BTW FUJI you for sure missed this one as with $AYA so go buy an ETF. JCPRO I do wish you had seen this one coming. You could have made some serious cash.

You are talking from an Ontario point of view, Rona is a very well run company on the Quebec side of the border. Better stocked and good prices to compete with Home Depot. Quebec investment broker have been strongly recommending Rona as a strong buy for the last 18 months.

 

[jcpro]

You guys kill me. who cares about RONA? Stores were always a disaster very bad real estate deals/locations, idiot management. Garbage outfit. So unless you got your butt out of bed @5am today saw the news, grabbed shares pre-market and made 70-98 % on your money why would u care? BTW FUJI you for sure missed this one as with $AYA so go buy an ETF. JCPRO I do wish you had seen this one coming. You could have made some serious cash.

I thought they'd just go into receivership. I did not think anybody would buy it.

 

[SkyRider]

I thought they'd just go into receivership.

I was thinking the same thing. Lowe's paying $3.2 billion for a company that is probably going bankrupt. Reminds me of Wardair when they were going under and PWA paid something like $75mm to buy them. Soon thereafter PWA crashed and burned.

 

[black booty lover]

Lowe's treats there employees like crap, and there whole HR department is a joke. I guess that doesn't make a difference to the customers though.

 

[eguapo]

The jokers in the deck is what will the Quebec and federal governments do? Lowe is an American company.

Remember what happened with Potash. The Saskatchewan and federal governments and the CEO killed the BHP offer. At least the Rona CEO is onside (how much does he/she stand to make?).

The Quebec government has already tacitly approved the deal. The Caisse, it's main pension fund manager and Rona's largest institutional shareholder has pledged that they will tender their shares to the deal.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Since the separatist government of Pauline Marois was thrown out in 2014, Philippe Couillard the new premier of Quebec is pro business, pro Quebec, Pro Canada. The whole attitude of Quebec has changes and things are relaxed in Quebec these days. This deal will pass easily. Not like in the days of the separatist where they would slap away the hand holding out cash for the province.

 

[lomotil]

The pequistes are a cancer and old hat.

 

[onceaday]

They sell hammers there right? The point was (insert hammer) you and I both know they were a crap company big bet on real estate etc. totally a takeout target. Been watching daily for months. I got paid. Too many folks dreaming in technicolour, opinions don't matter especially from the uninformed. This was a one day trade on a crap company run by Quebec robbers anyone who didn't make at least 50K on this has no business commenting. You either made the call or you didn't. BTW this is not @JC more the others pontificating that something that has come and gone has...gone.

I thought they'd just go into receivership. I did not think anybody would buy it.