Selfridges’ property portfolio slashed by more than £600m

The value of Selfridges’ property portfolio was slashed by more than half a billion pounds last year, underlining the challenges facing the illustrious department store group as its ownership changes for the second time in three years.
Accounts for Selfridges’ property holding company reveal that valuers marked down its £3.1 billion of property assets — which include its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street — by £638.6 million, a fall of 20.6 per cent. More than £1.7 billion of loans, maturing in August 2025, are secured against Selfridges’ freehold property.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) last week struck a deal to buy a 40 per cent stake in Selfridges Group, which includes Selfridges, as well as the department store chains De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland.
In 2021, the billionaire Weston family sold Selfridges Group to real estate group Signa Holding and Central Group, a Thai conglomerate, in a £4 billion deal. The deal with PIF comes after Signa, the heavily indebted real estate group, dramatically collapsed last year when the sharp rise in interest rates exposed its weak finances. That prompted a fresh auction for its stake in Selfridges.
Selfridges declined to provide any financial terms of last week’s deal with PIF.
Signa’s collapse forced Central, a family-owned business spanning retail, hotels and restaurants, to lend Selfridges a total of £98.1 million this year to cover the total financial commitments the group’s co-owners had previously signed up for. Central and PIF have invested undisclosed sums into Selfridges as part of last week’s deal.
Selfridges is split into two corporate entities: one holding its property assets and the other accounting for Selfridges operating business. Accounts for Selfridges’ operating company have yet to be filed.
The property portfolio that has been devalued includes the Oxford Street flagship, an adjacent building and the Selfridges store in Manchester’s Exchange Square.
A Selfridges spokesman said the writedowns were largely driven by “external market factors” such as interest rates and prevailing market rents.