Selfridges was sold to the Thai-Austrian alliance in a $ 5 billion deal by Reuters

By Matthias Inverardi

DUESSELDORF (Reuters) – Selfridges is selling a British luxury chain to a Thai retailer and an Austrian real estate company, a source close to the matter said in a deal worth around £ 4bn ($ 5.37bn).

The Central Group of Thailand and the Austrian real estate company Signa Group, which already own large stores across Europe, said on Thursday they had reached an agreement for a chain known for its Oxford Street store in London.

The Canadian wing of the billionaire Weston family bought Selfridges for almost £ 600 million in 2003.

Central Group, owned by the billionaire Chirathivat family, and Austrian investor Rene Benko’s Signa together have large stores in Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland.

Founded in 1908, the Selfridges Group has 10,000 employees and 25 stores worldwide, including major cities in England, Ireland, the Netherlands and Canada.

Signa and Central will take 18 of the 25 stores and expect to build a luxury hotel alongside the iconic Oxford Street, the source said, adding that seven major Canadian department stores were not part of the package.

With Selfridges, they hope to build an empire of big luxury stores, complete with an online business.

The source said that by 2024, sales are expected to increase to 8 billion euros ($ 9.1 billion) – including more than 1 billion on the network – from around 5 billion now.

The conglomerate will be managed from a London holding company with the option to be listed on the stock exchange, although local management of stores in other countries will be maintained, the source said.

Central opened its first department store in 1956 and became the owner of Thailand’s major shopping malls with around 2,400 retail stores. It has a joint venture in e-commerce with JD (NASDAQ :).

It has been present in Central Europe since La Rinascente SpA bought a chain of Italian department stores in 2011 for 205 million euros. In 2013, Illum also acquired the oldest store in Denmark.

In 2015, Central bought Signari from three German luxury stores. Central and Signa jointly bought the Swiss Globus luxury store and other assets last year for more than 1 trillion Swiss francs ($ 1.1 billion).

Central and Signa Aeon Co. have also teamed up with Japanese retail giant to develop an e-commerce platform for one of the growing online sports retail markets.

Benko made a name for himself as a property investor. He bought the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City in partnership with RFR Holding LLC in partnership with about $ 150 million in 2019.