Selfridges Is Being Sold For $5B

Britain’s luxury store chain Selfridge’s is being acquired by a Thai retailer and an Austrian real estate company in a deal worth $5.37 billion.

The two companies, Thailand’s Central Group and Austria’s Signa Group, already jointly own several other department store chains across various European countries, including Denmark, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

Selfridges was bought by late Canadian billionaire Galen Weston in 2003 for $804 million. Today, the department store chain employs 10,000 workers across 25 store locations located in Canada, Britain, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Under the terms of the deal, the Central Group and Signa Group will take over 18 of the 25 stores and plan to build a luxury hotel next to Selfridges’ Oxford Street flagship store. The deal does not include store locations in Canada.

With the acquisition of Selfridges, the two companies are aiming to build a luxury empire. Additionally, Central Group and Signa Group are looking to improve online sales by more than $1 billion. And according to Reuters, both groups are looking to boost overall sales to $9.1 billion by 2024, up from $5.6 billion now.

Aside from jointly owning other retail businesses across Europe, Central and Signa are working with Japanese retail conglomerate Aeon Co. on developing an eCommerce platform for the fast-growing online sports retail business.

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Originally published at https://retailbum.com on December 27, 2021.