UK department store Selfridges’ owners are opening up the floor for bidders to buy up the chain, with a provisional auction price tag of £4 billion set, according to a report in The Guardian.
The Weston family said it was open to the idea last month after 80-year-old W Galen Weston, who purchased the chain in 2003, passed away.
It’s still possible the family will decide not to sell, though it has appointed advisors from Credit Suisse to oversee an auction, and will send out sale documents to potential buyers in the next few weeks.
The business’ four stores in the United Kingdom in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, as well as Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, are the assets available for sale.
And according to The Guardian, it’s likely the main reason for the sale is that the Selfridges brand hasn’t adapted well to the shift to online, and that after 18 months of diminishing returns due to the ongoing pandemic, the Weston Family doesn’t have the “conviction” to carry on running the business.
