The owners of Saks Fifth Avenue are believed to be in discussions regarding the raising of financing to contribute to a potential offer for rival department store Neiman Marcus.
Saks’ flagship location in Manhattan is believed to have been valued at 3.62 billion dollars, sources for Bloomberg stated, a significant increase on a 2019 appraisal that had initially come to 1.6 billion dollars.
The media outlet reported that Saks and its lenders had the property appraised so it could serve as collateral to raise debt for financing efforts, a move that came as rumours of a deal between both Saks and Neiman began to circulate.
Such speculation had begun swirling earlier this year, when various media reports suggested that Saks was believed to have issued a series of bids to acquire Neiman. One of which was understood to have totalled three million dollars, yet this had ultimately been rejected according to the Wall Street Journal.
In response to the rumours, Neiman’s CEO, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, told CNBC that there was “no need” to sell the business, adding that the company was unlikely to change hands in the next five years.
Van Raemdonck did confirm that there had been “multiple conversations” in recent years regarding a possible takeover, yet it hasn’t happened as the company has “a billion of available liquidity” and was therefore in a “good place”.
