Nordstrom founding family takes retailer private

The Nordstrom family now owns the department store chain of the same name.

Erik, Pete and Jamie Nordstrom and other members of their family, along with Mexican retailer Puerto de Liverpool, announced a deal on Monday (Dec. 26) to acquire all of Nordstrom’s outstanding common stock.

The buyers set the value of the all-cash transaction at about $6.25 billion, giving the Nordstrom family a majority stake in the now private company. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Nordstrom board, with Erik and Pete Nordstrom – both company executives – withdrawing.

“For over a century, Nordstrom has operated with the core principle of making its customers feel and look good,” said Erik Nordstrom, the company’s CEO, in a press release. “Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for the company. On behalf of my family, we look forward to working with our teams to ensure Nordstrom continues to thrive well into the future.”

Liverpool chief executive Graciano F. Guichard G. added that the retailer was excited to “invest in a company that has shaped the industry for almost 125 years.”

Nordstrom set up a special committee in 2017 to review a takeover deal and discussed the plan with several private equity firms. However, the following year the committee rejected an offer as inadequate.

Then, in March of this year, reports surfaced that the Nordstrom founding family had once again expressed interest in going private. Erik and Pete Nordstrom told the Nordstrom board in April that they were interested in taking the company private. Sycamore Partners, a buyout equity firm that owns department store operator Belk, had also expressed interest in taking Nordstrom private.

In September, Nordstrom received a proposal for a go-private deal from the family and Liverpool.

Erik Nordstrom reported last month that both the company’s digital sales and overall customer experience improvements showed improvement last quarter.

“In the third quarter, our efforts to improve the customer experience continued to resonate, enabling net sales and comparable sales growth, margin expansion and an expansion of our customer base,” Nordstrom said during its third quarter earnings call.

“Both Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack achieved comparable sales growth of 4%. We are particularly pleased that our online business has maintained its momentum with digital sales growth of over 6%,” he added. “Customers responded to our innovations in selecting the brands that matter most to them, driving positive overall company net sales growth for the fourth consecutive quarter.”