BlackBerry moving out of Canada? Troubled manufacturer is selling off its Canadian properties

On Tuesday, a statement from BlackBerry started up the speculation that the troubled manufacturer might be leaving Canada. The company said that it would be selling the "majority" of its Canadian property in an effort to bolster the health of its declining balance sheet. Helping out will be real estate company CBRE. BlackBerry said that it wants to sell off the properties "through a combination of sale-leaseback and vacant asset sales."

BlackBerry currently has its headquarters in Waterloo, which is where the majority of its real estate lies. The handset producer also has some holdings in Toronto and other areas of Ontario. The company is looking to jettison 3 million square feet of office space. Last month the company raised $37 million by selling off 5 buildings and some accompanying land, to the University of Waterloo.

Wells Fargo analysts Maynard Um, Munjal Shah and Santosh Sankar estimated that BlackBerry could raise $600 to $700 million from the sale of the properties. Considering that in the last two quarters, the company has written down more than $3.5 billion of unsold BlackBerry 10 handsets, the cash raised by any real estate sale would be put to good use by bolstering BlackBerry's balance sheet.

Despite speculation about a possible move out of Canada, BlackBerry CEO John Chen issued a statement reiterating the company's commitment to remain headquartered in Waterloo, and its desire to maintain a strong presence in Canada.


source: WSJ, Reuters via FierceWireless