Luxury Retailer Nordstrom To Go Private?

According to Fortune, the Nordstrom family, which collectively owns 31 percent of the Seattle-based luxury retailer’s shares, has formed a group to explore a potential “going-private transaction” that would involve the acquisition of 100 percent of Nordstrom’s outstanding shares. The company’s board has also formed a special committee that would weigh any possible transaction.

Along with other brick-and-mortar department stores, luxury store Nordstrom has struggled with poor traffic trends as consumers increasingly turn to eCommerce competitors like Amazon. In 1999, the department store had a total sales of $230 billion. Last year, that was down to $155.5 billion, thanks to eCommerce. And department store shares were hurt this week after Macy’s said gross margins for the year would be lighter than expected in February.

If a deal for Nordstrom happens, the buyer would acquire a retailer with 344 stores in the U.S., five locations in Canada and eCommerce shops via Nordstrom.com and TrunkClub.com. It had $14.5 billion in sales last year, an increase from $14.1 billion in 2015, though profitability declined. Nordstrom’s market value stands at $7.5 billion as of Thursday afternoon.