By Matthias Inverardi

DUESSELDORF – The luxury British retailer Selfridges was sold to a Thai property firm and a Thai retailer in a deal valued around 4 billion pounds (or $5.37 billion).

Signa Group from Austria, Thailand and Central Group Thailand jointly own large department stores in Europe.

Selfridges was bought by the Canadian family of billionaires Weston for 600 million pounds.

Central Group, which is controlled by billionaire Chirathivat and Rene Benko’s Signa, Austrian investors, owns department shops in Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Selfridges Group was founded in 1908 and employs 10,000 people. It has 25 shops worldwide including major cities in England and Ireland.

Signa and Central will acquire 18 out of 25 of these stores and plan to construct a luxurious hotel next to the Oxford Street flagship. The source also stated that the deal did not include seven Canadian department stores.

Selfridges is a company that aims to create a luxurious department store chain, with an online component.

According to the source, they intend to double sales from 5 billion to 8.1 billion by 2024.

A London-based holding company will manage the conglomerate, while local management of stores in other countries will still be maintained, according to the source.

In 1956 Central opened its first department shop. It grew to be Thailand’s biggest mall owner, with more than 2,400 stores. The company has an joint venture in e-commerce with China’s JD.com, and holds stakes at Grab Holdings for Southeast Asia ride-hailing service Grab.

Central Europe has been active since 2011, when it acquired La Rinascente SpA (an Italian department store chain) for 205million euros. In 2013, it also acquired Illum, Denmark’s oldest department store.

Signa bought the majority of three German luxury department store chains from Central in 2015 Signa and Central purchased the Swiss luxury shop Globus as well other assets last year for more than 1 million Swiss francs ($1.1billion).

Central and Signa also collaborated with Japanese retailer giant Aeon Co in order to create an e-commerce platform that will serve one of the most rapidly growing online markets for sports retailers.

As a property investor, Benko was a well-known name. In partnership with RFR Holding LLC, he purchased the New York City’s iconic Chrysler Building for $150 million.