By Chayut Setboonsarng
BANGKOK - Thailand's largest department store owner, Central Group, is just days away from closing a 4 billion pound ($5.31 billion) acquisition of Selfridges stores in the United Kingdom, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
An official announcement could be made as early as Thursday, the sources said.
The current owners of Selfridges, Canada's Weston family, agreed terms with Central around the end of November, according to a report in The Times newspaper on Dec. 2.
The Thai group's main department store unit, Central Retail Corp Pcl, would have the right to take a partial stake in Selfridges but was still considering, one of the sources added.
Central Group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Selfridges did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Central Group, owned by the billionaire Chirathivat family, has had a presence in Europe since 2011. Last year, it bought https://www.reuters.com/article/us-central-group-signa-globus-idUSKBN1ZY0KV Swiss luxury department store Globus and other real estate assets in a joint venture with Austria’s Signa for $1 billion.
It also owns Italy's La Rinascente, Denmark’s Illum and KaDeWe in Germany. In Asia, it operates supermarkets in Vietnam.
($1 = 0.7539 pounds)
