PARIS (Reuters) – High-end French department store chain Galeries Lafayette said it was in exclusive talks to sell the well-known BHV Marais lifestyle store in Paris to Groupe SGM (Société des Grands Magasins), a family-run specialist urban retail company.
The financial details were not disclosed.
The deal will allow Galeries Lafayette to focus on its flagship Boulevard Haussmann store and its network of 17 other flagship outlets in French provinces and rebuild cash flow depleted during the COVID crisis, said the company.
Galeries Lafayette will sell the real estate and business assets of BHV Marais, located on Rue de Rivoli in Paris’ Marais area – a tourist hotspot – with annual sales of around 350 million euros ($375 million), as well as the BHV store in the Parly 2 shopping center near Versailles, outside Paris.
The aim is to finalise the deal in 2023, provided it gets the green light from competition authorities.
Galeries Lafayette has owned BHV Marais since 1991. Since 2014, it has completed a major revamp of the store to bolster its appeal, setting up several exclusive fashion and lifestyle boutiques and creating the Lafayette Anticipations art foundation and Eataly Paris Marais food emporium next door.
Galeries Lafayette said it will continue to operate Eataly Paris Marais and the Lafayette Anticipations foundation.
Galeries Lafayette’s Paris stores compete in the French capital with the likes of Bon Marche and La Samaritaine, owned by LVMH, and the Printemps store now owned by Qatari investors.
($1 = 0.9341 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon)
