Nordstrom Founding Family Finalizing Go Private Offer

Nordstrom is gearing up to go private, with the founding family finalizing a plan, reported Reuters.

According to a report in Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, the founding family group met with investment bankers last week and are aiming to submit an offer in March, once the banks are given the nod from the credit committees to give the group the financing. The report noted the offer is coming to Nordstrom as it gears up to report fourth-quarter results and provide an update on how it did during the holiday selling season. The stock is up around 30 percent since Thanksgiving on expectations that the department store operator did well during the last three months of 2017.

The founding family group — which has teamed up with Leonard Green & Partners on the buyout — halted efforts in October to take it private because of troubles getting the debt financing for its offer before the holiday season played out. Investment banks, back then, didn’t want to give the group the debt financing to make a $7 billion to $8 billion offer.  In June, Nordstrom revealed the family group was looking at taking the company private. The group holds 31.2 percent stake in the department store operator. The group thinks it can manage the company better and move it more into the world of eCommerce if it isn’t publicly traded. The company has created a special committee to look at any offers it gets from the family group, reported Reuters. In January the retailer was able to post comparable sale stores that increased 1.2 percent. That growth was fueled by its discount store and its eCommerce business, noted Reuters. Hudson Bay, the operator of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, mulled going private last year — but nothing came of it, noted the report.