A sign marks the location of a Nordstrom store on March 20, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Nordstrom on Monday announced will go private after agreeing to a buyout valued at roughly $6.25 billion from Nordstrom’s founding family and Mexican department store El Puerto de Liverpool.
The company’s board of directors unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
As part of the deal, the Nordstrom family will have a majority stake in the company, with 50.1%, and Liverpool will hold 49.9%. Common shareholders will receive $24.25 in cash for each share of Nordstrom common stock they own, according to a press release.
“For more than a century, Nordstrom has operated with the core principle of helping customers feel good and look their best,” Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom said in a press release. “Today marks an exciting new chapter for the business. On behalf of my family, we look forward to working with our teams to ensure Nordstrom thrives long into the future.”
This is not the first time a retailer has tried to go private. Previous effort evaporated in 2018. In September, the Nordstrom family offered $23 per share for the chain, which valued the company at approximately $3.76 billion.
Shares of Nordstrom were down about 1% in early trading. Since then, the company’s stock has soared a Reuters report in March that the family wants to privatize the company.
Nordstrom beat Wall Street November sales expectations for the fiscal third quarter, as revenues rose about 4% year-over-year. But the company only gave a slightly rosier full-year sales forecast as it said it expected a mild holiday season.
Luxury clothing stores were under pressure as were retailers Walmart, Best Buy and Goal reported that customers are still picky when it comes to buying things they want rather than need, and have paid more attention to price.
Nordstrom was founded as a shoe store in 1901 before transitioning into a department store that sells a wide variety of clothing and accessories at more than 350 Nordstrom, Nordstrom Local and Nordstrom Rack locations.
El Puerto de Liverpool operates two other department store chains, Liverpool and Suburbia, and owns 29 shopping centers throughout Mexico.
