Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Tire Corp., the country’s largest sporting goods retailer, filed documents with regulators to sell shares in its real estate investment trust.

CT REIT will acquire 255 Canadian Tire stores and a distribution center as part of the initial public offering, the Toronto-based retailer said today in a statement. The properties, which total 19 million square feet, represent about 72 percent of Canadian Tire’s owned real-estate portfolio.

Canadian Tire said on May 9 that it planned to create a C$3.5 billion ($3.38 billion) REIT in an IPO this year. The retailer planned to keep 80 percent to 90 percent of the REIT, which will have a minimal effect on earnings, the company said at the time.

The IPO is being led by Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

--Editors: David Scanlan, Paul Badertscher

To contact the reporter on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net