Tokyu Store Bids $1.3-Billion for Bloomingdales : Buyout: Present owner Campeau, suffering financing difficulties, gets overtures from Tokyo-based chain.
Tokyu Department Store is negotiating to buy New York’s famed Bloomingdales department store chain, news reports said today.
The Tokyo-based chain will likely buy Bloomingdales for $1.3 billion from its current owner, Campeau Corp., a Canadian real estate company, the economic newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.
Tokyu officials were not available for comment today because of a company holiday.
Campeau spokeswoman Carol Sanger declined to comment on the Japanese news reports. She said Campeau has received “expressions of interest” in buying Bloomingdales but she would not say whether any formal bids had been made.
An investment group formed and headed by Tokyu, which ranked seventh in earnings last year among Japanese department stores, and other investors will invest approximately $400 million in the buyout, and the remaining $900 million will be covered by loans from financial institutions, the newspaper said.
Campeau, which bought Bloomingdales last spring, later announced its intention to sell the upscale department store chain due to its difficulties in obtaining capital.
But the real estate company has not yet reached agreement with Tokyu on many details of the purchase, including price and the manner by which the buyout will be completed, Kyodo News Service said.
Owned by Campeau, which is reportedly in financial trouble, Bloomingdales presents a negative image to some banks and investors, said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun report.
Bloomingdales, a popular American department store chain, has 17 stores mainly on the East Coast of the United States, including New York and Washington. Kyodo reported Bloomingdales has annual sales of about $1.2 billion.
However, Kyodo quoted department store sources as saying the deal was seen as involving risks for Tokyu, and said they questioned Bloomingdales’ past performance and profitability. It did not elaborate.
