Canada's Hudson's Bay Co., owner of the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue retail chains, has yet to line up equity financing for a bid for Macy's Inc., over a month after approaching its U.S. peer, people familiar with the matter said.

Hudson's Bay's challenges in putting together a firm offer are a blow to the ambitions of its majority owner and executive chairman Richard Baker, who built a retail empire relying on real estate financing as much as his knowledge of the retail sector.

To mount a credible offer for Macy's, which has a market capitalization of more than $10 billion, Baker has been seeking to raise equity and debt financing for Hudson's Bay, which has a market value of C$2.2 billion ($1.64 billion), the sources said this week.

However, Hudson's Bay's existing equity partners, including mall operator Simon Property Group Inc., have been reluctant to back Hudson's Bay's bid for Macy's, which would require them to invest more money in mall real estate, even as consumers continue to abandon them in favor of internet shopping.