One of the losing bidders for the crown jewel in Sir Philip Green’s former retail empire is poised to pick up a consolation prize by buying the tycoon’s remaining logistics asset for more than £60m.
Sky News has learnt that JD Sports Fashion has entered exclusive talks to buy Arcadia Group’s distribution centre in Daventry, Northants, amid a frenzy of interest from bidders.
Retail industry sources said that Boohoo Group, Amazon and eBay had all expressed an interest in buying the warehouse in recent weeks.
A deal has yet to be concluded, and the price that JD Sports would have to pay to acquire it was estimated by analysts on Monday to be between £60m and £90m.
That would trigger the repayment of a £50m loan to Arcadia made by Sir Philip‘s family last year, and secured against the Daventry site.
The volume of bid interest in the warehouse underlines the demand for logistics assets from online shopping groups which have been left struggling to cope with demand by the COVID-19 pandemic.
JD Sports was among the unsuccessful bidders for TopShop and TopMan, which were sold last month by Deloitte, Arcadia’s administrator, to ASOS.
Asos wants TopShop without the shop
Other brands from Sir Philip’s former empire were sold to Boohoo for around £25m.
Arcadia’s only other remaining asset of any scale is the lease on its Oxford Circus flagship store, which is undergoing a sale process run by KPMG.
JD Sports declined to comment on Monday.
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