Westons’ Choice Properties to create Canada’s largest REIT, buys rival for $3.9B
TORONTO — The Weston family is poised to create Canada’s largest real estate investment trust through a $3.9-billion deal for its publicly traded Choice Properties REIT to buy Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust.
The combination of Choice Properties, which counts Loblaw as its principal tenant and largest unitholder, and CREIT will create a company with a diversified portfolio of 752 properties.
The Weston family — one of Canada’s wealthiest — controls the Loblaw food business and other retail operations, including Shoppers Drug Mart and the Joe Fresh fashion chain, through its holdings in George Weston Ltd.
The REIT empire helps it diversify away from its focus on retail, which has been experiencing mass disruption amid the rise of e-commerce and an increasingly competitive environment.