Target, the discount retailer, is to sell about half of its store credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase for $3.6bn, in a deal that follows activist investor pressure from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management.

The retailer said the unusually structured deal would allow it to maintain control over the operations of its store-branded “Redcard” credit cards, while sharing risks and launching “a long-term credit card relationship” with JPMorgan.