UK-listed Frasers Group has emerged as the leading contender to acquire department store chain Harvey Nichols, Sky News reported.
The takeover is expected to involve Harvey Nichols briefly entering administration, with FTI Consulting lined up to act as insolvency practitioner under a pre-pack administration arrangement.
Next, which has been vying with Frasers for control of Harvey Nichols over recent weeks, retains the option of raising its offer, although sources indicated this was seen as unlikely with a final decision now close at hand.
If the acquisition proceeds, it would end 35 years of ownership under Hong Kong billionaire Dickson Poon, who bought the retailer in 1991.
Harvey Nichols dates back to 1831, was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996, and subsequently returned to private ownership.
Poon had appointed FTI Consulting several weeks earlier to oversee a sale of the business.
Harvey Nichols later informed its brand suppliers that it had been “obliged to allow Frasers Group to participate in the process alongside the other interested parties”, a nod to the rules governing pre-pack sales.
Frasers had originally been shut out of the bidding process.
Interest in the retailer had also come from various international suitors and turnaround specialists focused on retail, though the field has since narrowed to Frasers and Next as the only remaining bidders.
Prospective buyers have been told they would need to commit funding of as much as £60m ($80.9m) towards the retailer's continued transformation, although some figures in the retail sector believe a larger sum may be required to keep the business intact in its present form.
Harvey Nichols currently has around 1,200 employees, with outlets in London, Edinburgh and Leeds, UK; as well as overseas branches in Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Riyadh.
Several suppliers have voiced unease at the prospect of Frasers taking over, pointing to their past dealings with the group during its short-lived ownership of online fashion retailer Matchesfashion.
