The Galeries Lafayette group, owner of the famous bazaar, entered “exclusive negotiations” with the group SGM.
By Cécile Prudhomme
She is an old lady of 167, one of the deans in her sector, who is preparing to turn a page in her history. The Parisian department store of the BHV, located in the heart of the Marais, in Paris, facing the town hall, is about to change hands. Its current owner, the Galeries Lafayette, announced having entered “exclusive negotiations” with the SGM group (Société des department stores), a family business specializing in the big city center trade, “in order to give in the BHV Marais” , its walls and its business.
The transaction also includes the BHV store located in the Westfield Parly 2 shopping center in the Yvelines, near Versailles, but not only. “We buy the brand, which means the resumption of all the real estate heritage attached to it, the website, the purchasing power plants and the teams,” enthuses Frédéric Merlin, president of the company of department stores, exhibitor His new trophy. “This still represents nearly 1,300 employees. This is a crazy opportunity”.
The exploitation of the Italian catering and grocery chain Eataly Paris Marais, whose Galeries Lafayette have the exclusive franchise for France, and the Lafayette Anticipations Foundation will remain in the group’s active portfolio. The operation, entering its social consultation phase, should lead “during the year 2023”.
“The fruit of a meeting and a common vision”
The amounts of this transaction, which is formed between two family companies – one detaineed by the Moulin family, the other by Frédéric Merlin and his sister – will remain confidential. “It is an over -the -counter operation. No business bank has been commissioned,” said Mr. Merlin.
The group Les Galeries Lafayette had “invested widely in the ecosystem” of the Town Hall bazaar, which became BHV Marais in 2013, which had entered its lap during the acquisition of the new galleries, in 1991. Large work on the real estate heritage of the group notably made it possible to install, in March 2018, in an adjacent building, the Lafayette Anticipations Foundation – which serves as an exhibition site -, then the grocery store and Italian catering Eataly, in April 2019.
A complete redevelopment of the ground floor of the main store also took place in mid-2020. A priori, therefore, “the BHV was not for sale”, explain the Galeries Lafayette, ensuring that this change of shareholder results mainly from the “fruit of a meeting and a common vision on the place of physical commerce with Frédéric Merlin [whom they knew] well, since he was part of the second wave of affiliations “of the provincial Galeries Lafayette stores.
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