The Weston family, owner of Selfridges, has begun a formal auction of the major department stores business and the opening bids are expected to begin at £4bn.
Credit Suisse, the advisor, is to begin distributing information memoranda to potential buyers with a completion of the deal perhaps coming as soon as the end of this year. The sale process follows an unsolicited approach to buy Selfridges, which emerged last month.
The Times have reported that two or three parties have expressed an interest in the business, but to date no formal bids have been lodged. Sovereign wealth funds, such as Adia, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and the Qatar Investment Authority, have been named as potential interested parties.
It is widely understood that the sales process is being handled from North America by Robin Rankin, who is Credit Suisse’s Co-Head of Mergers and Acquisitions, who is advising Pavi Binning, now Special Advisor to the Weston family.
