Selfridges Owner Considers Sale

The owners of iconic U.K. department store Selfridges & Co. (London) is considering selling after receiving an unsolicited bid for $5.6 billion, reports Vogue Business. The chain is owned by the same family that controls Primark and has engaged Credit Suisse to advise.

“There’s never been a better time to buy the business, the value of which will be lower because of the headwinds they’re facing,” says Jonathan De Mello, equity partner at CWM, a retail property consultancy. Still, “if you look back at the history of Selfridges’s growth, year-on-year their sales have grown phenomenally. They were able to constantly reinvent themselves. Shoppers would come to the store and experience things for the first time. They always have something new going on, and I would say they’re one of the best department stores globally.”

Selfridges, founded in 1908, was purchased by Canadian W. Galen Weston, who died this year, for about $845 million in 2003. The deal would include the chain’s landmark London store plus its Exchange Square store in Manchester and Brown Thomas in Dublin.