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Selfridges approves $960m sale
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The board of Britain's upmarket department stores Selfridges has advised shareholders to accept an offer from Canadian billionaire Galen Weston worth £598 million ($960 million), or 387 pence per share. Weston, who already owns Fortnum & Mason, the British luxury food stores and brand, beat six other rivals to clinch the deal and by mid-morning Selfridges shares were up 10.27 percent at 392.00. The offer, which ends weeks of speculation surrounding the stores, would also assume Selfridges' net debt, estimated to be around £30.1 million. Selfridges Chairman Alun Cathcart said the offer was "fair and reasonable" and represented a 60 percent premium to the company's stock market value five weeks ago. It is also an 8.9 percent premium over Friday's closing share price of 355-1/2p. Selfridges, founded in 1909 by an American, Harry G. Selfridge, has a 540,000-sq.ft flagship in London's Oxford Street -- Britain's second largest store -- and two outlets in Manchester, England. It has current plans for more stores in other UK cities including Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle. The group was brought back to prominence in recent years by former chief executive Vittorio Radice with an emphasis on more designer labels. Selfridges has been at the center of a flood of bid speculation in recent weeks after Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter fired the starting gun on an auction last month with an offer thought to be around 330-350p a share. A spokesman for Tom Hunter said Monday he had effectively withdrawn from the bidding contest after his joint offer was trumped. The spokesman said Hunter had joined forces over the weekend with the billionaire Reuben brothers and had made a fully funded cash offer of 385 pence per share, plus a dividend of 5.25 pence. A management buyout team led by Chief Executive Peter Williams, a consortium led by Goldman Sachs and Robert Tchenguiz of the Rotch Property Group had also been named as possible bidders.
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