P.M. BRIEFING : Bloomingdale’s Deal Dealt Blow

Japan’s Tokyu department store said today that it has decided not to join in a proposed management buyout of Bloomingdale’s department store chain.

The decision came late last year after a series of studies and contacts with Bloomingdale’s, said a Tokyu official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The New York-based Bloomingdale’s is owned by heavily indebted Campeau Corp., a Canadian retail and real estate company that owns strings of department store chains in the United States. Campeau put the 17-store Bloomingdale’s chain on the auction block in September as part of a restructuring plan to cope with a financial crisis.

In November, Bloomingdale’s Chairman Marvin Traub visited Tokyo and said he had been negotiating with four Japanese groups about backing the management buyout. He did not identify the four.