Saks sold to owner of L&T
Saks Fifth Avenue has a new corporate parent — and will be sharing it with a couple of famous retail siblings.
The swanky luxury chain has struck a deal to be acquired by Hudson’s Bay, the Canadian department-store chain that owns Lord & Taylor, sources told The Post.
The deal, first reported late yesterday on 24hbongdda.site, is expected to be announced as soon as today.
“It’s a done deal — Baker has won his prize,” said one source briefed on the negotiations, referring to Hudson’s Bay chairman Richard Baker, a savvy New York real-estate tycoon said to have coveted Saks even before scooping up Lord & Taylor in 2006.
The agreement appears to have won the blessing of Saks’ two largest shareholders, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Italian luxury magnate Diego Della Valle, who together own 30 percent of the company.
Saks Chairman and CEO Steve Sadove, who has won praise for slashing debt and closing laggard stores, is expected to leave the company.
Baker, who has been in talks with Saks execs for weeks on combining operations, plans to make better use of the companies’ combined real estate by converting some Saks locations to Lord & Taylor, sources said.
Likewise, Baker is particularly keen to introduce Saks Fifth Avenue into Canada, according to insiders. That’s partly because Baker is concerned about Nordstrom’s plans to enter the Canadian market.
Baker has taken The Bay, his company’s namesake chain, upscale during the past few years. Nevertheless, sources said Baker sees room for more Canadian outlets that cater to luxury shoppers.
While the price of the deal couldn’t be learned, insiders speculated the chain fetched between $17 and $18 a share, although Hudson’s Bay was said earlier to have offered between $15 and $16 a share.
Saks shares on Friday added 13 cents to close at $15.31.
Spokespersons for Saks and Hudson’s Bay declined to comment yesterday. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs, which was hired by Saks this spring to sell the company, declined to comment.
As reported Friday by The Post, real-estate mogul Barry Sternlicht dropped out of the race for Saks after his bidding partner, the buyout firm Catterton Partners, bowed out.
Saks had also recently attracted a third bidder, believed to be a Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth fund, possibly from Qatar.