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Selfridges set for £4bn sale to Thai retail giant Posted: 03 Dec 2021 08:44 AM PST Selfridges' owner, the Weston family has been seeking about £4 billion for the department store chain, is understood to have agreed terms with Central Group in the last few days and wants to close the deal by the end of the year. According to the Times, which first reported the deal.  The UK retailer owns 25 outlets, including a huge flagship store in London’s Oxford Street, and branches in Dublin, the Netherlands and Canada. Selfridges was founded in 1908 by US retail magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge. The chain has been owned by the billionaire Westons for 18 years. The Weston family put the chain up for sale in June, a few months after the death of Galen Weston, who oversaw the move to take the department store private in 2003. The family control Selfridges through Wittington Investments Ltd, in Canada, which is separate from the UK arm of the same name that owns a large stake in Primark-owner Associated British Foods. Central Group is a family-owned conglomerate that started in Bangkok but went global when the founder’s son, Samrit Chirathivat, opened Thailand’s first department store in 1956. It now has 3,700 shops around the world, from supermarkets to electronics outlets, and department stores in Europe. Central Group’s non-executive director Vittorio Radice ran Selfridges between 1996 and 2003 and has been managing a department store in Italy since 2006. His role includes responsibility for expansion in Europe. A division of the group, Central Retail, sparked confusion about whether a Selfridges sale had fallen through when it issued a short stock exchange announcement that it was “not currently involved” with a deal. However, it is understood the Westons, one of Canada’s richest families, are in talks with a different arm of the giant Central Group company. The article Selfridges set for £4bn sale to Thai retail giant appeared first on World Branding Forum.

Disney elects female chairperson Posted: 02 Dec 2021 03:30 AM PST For the first time in their 98-year history, Disney has elected a female as new chairman of the company. Susan Arnold, who has been a Disney board member for 14 years, will succeed Bob Iger at the end of this year. Arnold was formerly an executive at global investment firm Carlyle. Mr Iger, who stepped down as Disney’s chief executive in 2020 after 15 years in the role, will leave the company by the end of this month. “As I step into this new role as chairman of the board, I look forward to continuing to serve the long-term interests of Disney’s shareholders and working closely with CEO Bob Chapek as he builds upon the company’s century-long legacy of creative excellence and innovation,” Ms Arnold said in a statement. Arnold has also served in senior roles at some of America’s biggest companies. For the last eight years she has been an executive at Carlyle Group, having previously held roles at consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble and fast food chain McDonald’s. “Susan is an incredibly esteemed executive whose wealth of experience, unwavering integrity, and expert judgment have been invaluable to the company since she first joined the Board in 2007,” Mr Iger said. Her appointment comes as large companies are moving away from management structures where the chief executive and chairperson roles are held by the same person after pressure from corporate governance experts, investors and, in some cases, regulators to separate the two key positions. Mr Iger’s exit marks the end of an era for Disney, who has been in a senior role at the company since 1996. In his time as chief executive Disney made a number of major acquisitions, including the takeovers of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. In 2016, the firm opened its first theme park and resort in mainland China. Several other Disney executives have announced plans to leave by the end of this year, including studios head Alan Horn, president and chief creative officer of Disney Branded Television Gary Marsh and company general counsel Alan Braverman. The article Disney elects female chairperson appeared first on World Branding Forum.

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