Selfridges luxury store in London may be sold to the Far East
Izer2 months ago4 min read
DrBritish luxury department store Selfridges is about to change its mind. According to British newspaper reports, the Canadian royal family of Weston is negotiating the sale of the Selfridges Group for some four billion dollars. pound (4.8 billion euros). The preferred takeover candidate is a Thai billionaire's family around retail tycoon Tos Chirathivat, who acquired KaDeWe in Berlin, Oberpollinger in Munich and Alsterhaus in Hamburg six years ago. company sent a report to the Bangkok Stock Exchange on Friday denying reports of a deal that has already been decided. One of the UK's leading luxury department stores has sold out live.
Christoph Hein
Commercial Correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.
Oxford Street-based Selfridges is a British institution, not as posh as Harrods and not as revered as Fortnum & Mason, but with equally impressive variety and a youthful flair. Vogue magazine once described the massive building on Oxford Street with its vertical old-looking facade, white columns inside and flower and glass decorations, like a “modern temple for shopaholics”. giant stuffed toys and crystal-encrusted prams for thousands of pounds).
Founded in 1908 by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the store has an eventful history. The indebted founder was there in World War II. It was later bought by Canadian billionaire Galen Weston in 2003 for £598 million at the time. Six months ago, Westons launched an auction to the department store group and put a price tag of four billion pounds. Selfridges has 25 department stores around the world, as well as the flagship store on Oxford Street, shopping centers in Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin, De Bejenkork in Amsterdam and the luxury department store chain Holt Renfrew in Canada.
READNext Generation: According to Metaverse: Blockchain-Based Web3 Wants to Revolutionize the Internet | NewsletterThe Westons family hired Credit Suisse to act as adviser to the sale. In addition to Thai Central Group, a Qatari sovereign wealth fund and a Hong Kong luxury supermarket chain are said to have been interested, but the Thai billionaire appears to be the favorite for the takeover, which could take weeks. Central Retail Corporation denied reports by The Times, Brand Inside and the Financial Times that the takeover went as well as decided. In a letter to the director of the Bangkok Stock Exchange, wrote that she was "not currently involved in the reported transaction."
Today the Central Group includes more than 3,000 stores, markets and shopping malls. Chirathivats has contacted the Chinese digital company JD.com through the online platform JD Central. The 220 grandchildren of the founder are among the elderly from the Thai community, including actors who have millions of Instagram followers and a rap musician. The culmination of their business so far has been the 2020 IPO of their Central Retail Corp. division. The family made $2.5 billion. It has not yet been decided whether Selfridges will actually go to the Thai company. There are some indications that this is the case. A few months ago, the family brought Italian director Vittorio Radis to the board, who does Two decades he masterminded the radical transformation of London's department store into a modern "temple of luxury."
