The Weston family has agreed to sell Selfridges to Thailand’s Central Group.
The billionaire Canadian family, which had been seeking about £4bn for the department store chain, is understood to have agreed terms with Central Group in the past few days and wants to close the deal by the end of the year.
Selfridges, founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908, has 25 stores worldwide, including its famous Oxford Street store in London, Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Dublin, De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Holt Renfrew in Canada. It has been owned by the Weston family for the past 18 years.
Central Group is a family-owned conglomerate with 3,700 shops around the world ranging from electronics to book stores and supermarkets. It also owns European department stores.
A sale to Central Group will herald the return of the retail veteran Vittorio Radice, who ran Selfridges two decades ago.
The financial terms of the deal are not yet clear but the deal will includes Selfridges’ property assets, which have been valued at £2bn.
