Is Hudson's Bay Co. for Sale?

(MoneyWatch)  Hudson's Bay Co. may be in play after its owner, Jerry Zucker, died of cancer over the weekend, the Globe and Mail says. HBC is the biggest retailer in Canada, and the oldest commercial company in North America, dating back to fur traders in the Great White North in 1670. The modern-day Hudson's Bay Co. has more than 600 stores in five formats, including The Bay department stores, a fast-growing "extreme value" chain called Fields, and Zellers, a style-conscious discounter described as "the Canadian Target."

The Globe and Mail's Marina Strauss says potential suitors might include Target, as well as Kohl's and Sears Holdings, which kicked the tires two years ago before Zucker bought Hudson's Bay for $878 million:

Target has said it isn't interested in expanding internationally in the near- or mid-term. But if an attractive opportunity arose, Target "would definitely spend time and energy to investigate it," said Uta Werner, a retail analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC in New York.

"The economic environment is tougher this year than it's been before," Werner said. "But this is a very strong retailing company with a solid balance sheet. If we're talking about $1-billion, plus or minus, I don't think that would be a problem for them."

Zucker's widow Anita Zucker replaces him as Hudson's Bay Co. governor, the equivalent of chairman -- the first woman to hold the post in HBC's 338 years, the company said. Rob Johnston, a longtime Zucker associate who's been president of HBC since mid-2007, was named CEO. Johnston and family members told the Charleston Post and Courier Monday that the family has no intention of selling.

Zucker, 58, was a chemist, inventor and self-made billionaire whose $3.8 billion company, The InterTech Group of Charleston, S.C., invested primarily in manufacturers of elastomer and polymer-based products, according to the Post and Courier. InterTech owned 19 percent of HBC before buying the chain outright in 2006.