Business

Blight brigade

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The smart money is shopping for bargains again at JCPenney.

At least two major hedge funds have amassed significant stakes in the troubled retailer, The Post has learned — even as billionaire George Soros last week revealed a surprise stake equal to 7.9 percent of the company.

One of the new pair of investors — a hedge fund worth more than $10 billion, according to one source — has scooped up a stake worth between 5 and 10 percent of the department-store chain, according to Wall Street insiders briefed on the investment.

The identity of the fund couldn’t be learned, but the stake, like the one taken by Soros, is said to be passive. It is expected to be revealed in a securities filing by mid-May, according to a source.

A second hedge fund also began buying shares aggressively of late, although it isn’t clear how large an investment it is making, a source said. Its identity, too, could not be learned.

“Smart money people think the thing is cheap and have been buying it,” one hedgie told The Post.

The new equity investors could be good news for billionaire Bill Ackman, whose hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, is the retail chain’s largest shareholder.

Neither Penney nor Ackman responded to requests for comment.

Ackman, who also holds a seat on the board, has been pilloried for his disastrous hire of ex-Apple exec Ron Johnson to transform the retailer. Johnson’s ruinous, 17-month stint was marked by a 25 percent drop in sales and a $1 billion loss last year. He was booted earlier this month.

The 46-year-old investor “lost a lot of credibility and it will help to see a vote of confidence from some big names,” according to one Wall Street source, adding, “it doesn’t hurt that Johnson is gone.”

The new investors appear to have been accumulating shares in the $15 range, well below the $25 a share that Ackman is said to have paid, on average, for his 18 percent stake.

Penney shares surged nearly 12 percent Friday to close at $17 after Soros revealed his stake and reports surfaced later in the day that Goldman Sachs has offered a $1.75 billion loan backed by the company’s real estate. Penney is expected to announce the Goldman deal as soon as today.

Steve Roth, Vornado Realty chief executive, who holds a seat on Penney’s board, shocked Wall Street in March when he abruptly unloaded nearly half of a 10 percent stake.

Roth was initially enthusiastic about bringing Johnson aboard in November 2011. But by last fall, with the chain’s makeover in a freefall, Roth soured on the CEO and quietly began making inquiries about potential successors, sources said, even as Ackman continued to support him.

In a private presentation to investors last week, Ackman admitted it had been difficult dealing with a “star CEO,” according to a source who attended the presentation.