// Selfridges owners agree deal to sell department store to Thailand’s Central Group
// The deal is expected to be closed by end of the year
Selfridges owners the Weston family have reportedly agreed to sell the luxury department store chain to Thailand’s Central Group.
The billionaire family, who are seeking £4 billion for the sale of the business, want to close the deal by the end of this year.
However, completion of the sale could still drag into the next month, The Times reported.
READ MORE: Selfridges in talks to offload web operations
The Westons have owned Selfridges for 18 years, and launched a formal auction in July to sell the business.
They initially attracting interested parties such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Hong-Kong department store Lane Crawford.
Central Group is a family-owned conglomerate whose founder Samrit Chirathivat opened Thailand’s first department store in 1956.
Today the business spans over 3700 shops worldwide ranging from electronics to supermarkets, as well as joint ownership of luxury Swiss department store chain Globus.
A sale to Central Group could see the return of retail veteran Vittorio Radice, who ran Selfridges between 1996 and 2003.
Radice led Italian department store La Rinascente, which is owned by Central Group, since 2006.
In September he was made non-executive board member at Central Group, overseeing the company’s European expansion.
The financial terms of the deal are not yet known but include Selfridges property assets, which have been valued at £2 billion.
Last month, Selfridges held discussions with potential investors about selling off its web operations.
Although Selfridges had not commented on this matter, “a person close to the retailer said that it’s not currently under consideration”, Bloomberg reported at the time.
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