Hudson’s Bay Co.

and its subsidiaries will be renamed as numbered companies instead of Rupert Legacy, as reported by some media outlets on Tuesday.

“HBC-specific companies will all be numbered companies moving forward until the end of wind down,” company spokesperson Tiffany Bourre said in an email.

The court-appointed monitor’s website that has been providing regular updates on the progress of HBC’s restructuring to stakeholders said on Aug. 8 that the names of the Bay and some of its affiliates would be renamed with a list of names that begin with Rupert Legacy.

According to the Canadian Press,

this was a reference to Prince Rupert, the Bay’s first governor, and Rupert’s Land, a vast swath of wilderness the company was given control over in 1670, when it began as a fur trading business.

However, according to a new court filing, the legal name Hudson’s Bay Co. ULC will be changed to 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. Similarly, Bay Holdings ULC will now be known as 1329608 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. Other subsidiaries will be given numbered names as well.

The renaming process had to take place since HBC sold its intellectual property rights to

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.

for about $30 million. HBC has been selling its assets since March, when it went to court to request protection from its creditors, to whom it owes millions of dollars.

Canadian Tire’s chief executive told analysts on a conference call last week that consumers could start to see the company experiment with the HBC stripes later this year.

“Canadians can expect to see some updates and fun initiatives starting in Q4 of this year, with our meaningful product presence rolling out in the back half of 2026,” Greg Hicks said. “I can’t overstate how excited we are to continue the HBC story.

HBC also announced

the sale of its Royal Charter,

a historical document that gave it exclusive trading rights over a portion of Canada in 1670, to Whittington Investments Ltd., a private entity owned by the Weston family, for $12.5 million.

“It doesn’t really matter what (HBC) is called now,” retail analyst Bruce Winder said. “All the heritage has been moved to other people and now it’s just a shell of what it once was. All the good parts worth saving have been sold off.

Aside from the sale of its name and historical artifacts, the company is looking to complete the sale of more than two dozen leases to a British Columbia-based billionaire later this month, but a host of landlords have opposed the move.

In a new court filing,

Ruby Liu

, the proposed purchaser, said the landlords’ concerns were misguided.

  • Hudson’s Bay changes name to Rupert Legacy
  • Hudson’s Bay ‘stripes’ could hit Canadian Tire shelves

“I have no intention to invest $400 million into a business and then have it fail after such a significant expenditure,” she said in a court filing. “I am committed to the financial success of the business.”

She said she is prepared to guarantee rent obligations under the leases for a period of one year after getting the leases to “provide comfort” to the landlords.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com