Luxury British retail chain Selfridges is being sold to a Thai retail giant and an Austrian property company in a 4 billion pound ($5.37 billion) deal, the companies said on Thursday.
The Bangkok-headquartered Central Group and Innsbruck-based Signa Group, which already jointly own department stores across Europe, said they struck a deal for the chain best known for its Oxford Street store in London.
The sellers are the Canadian wing of the billionaire Weston family, who bought Selfridges for nearly 600 million pounds in 2003.
Central Group, owned by the billionaire Chirathivat family, and Austrian investor Rene Benko’s Signa together own department stores in Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland.
Founded in 1908, the Selfridges Group employs 10,000 people and owns 25 stores worldwide, including in major cities in England, Ireland, the Netherlands and Canada.
Signa and Central will take over 18 of the 25 stores and hope to build a luxury hotel alongside the Oxford Street flagship, the source said, adding that seven department stores in Canada were not part of the package.
Central Spreads Its Wings
Central opened its first department store in 1956, growing to become Thailand’s largest mall owner with about 2,400 retail stores. It also owns Italy’s La Rinascente, Denmark’s Illum and KaDeWe in Germany. In Asia, it operates supermarkets in Vietnam.
The Thai company has an e-commerce joint venture with China’s JD.com and stakes in Southeast Asia ride-hailer Grab Holdings.
The deal with Selfridges could mark the return of industry heavyweight Vittorio Radice, who ran the retailer for seven years until 2003 and is a top lieutenant in the Chirathivat retail empire.
The 64-year-old is widely credited with modernising the department store chain and turning it into a shopping mecca.
“The only department store group that really has stepped up to modern retailing is Selfridges,” Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson said.
“As family businesses, Central and Signa will focus on delivering exceptional and inclusive store and digital experiences,” Tos Chirathivat, Central’s CEO, said.
- George Russell with inputs from Reuters
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