Brothers Erik and Peter Nordstrom submitted an offer to take private the eponymous retail giant Nordstrom, the company confirmed Wednesday morning, potentially bringing the multibillion-dollar department store chain founded by their great-grandfather in 1901 back into family control.
Erik Nordstrom, left, and Peter Nordstrom, right appear with actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2017.
Erik Nordstrom, the company’s chief executive officer, and Peter Nordstrom, its president, lead a family coalition to take a 50.1% stake in Nordstrom, according to Bloomberg, with remaining shares proposed to be held by Mexican chain El Puerto de Liverpool in a joint move.
The Seattle-based company Nordstrom said the proposal is under review by an “independent and disinterested” committee of its board of directors presumably excluding the brothers.
The Nordstrom family and El Puerto de Liverpool offer would purchase shares not held by either group for $23, less than 1% above Nordstrom’s $22.82 closing share price Tuesday, though it’s a roughly 35% premium to when reports first circulated about a take-private bid in March, a standard premium for similar transactions.
Shares of Nordstrom were roughly flat in morning trading, perhaps not a surprise considering the stock’s 34% rally over the five months between the initial report and the official filing.
The deal values Nordstrom at about $3.8 billion, just above its $3.7 billion market capitalization. It’s a far cry from when the company’s valuation peaked at more than $15 billion in 2015 as many publicly traded, brick-and-mortar retailers underperformed the broader market. Erik and Peter Nordstrom’s father, Bruce Nordstrom, died in May at 90 years old, having overseen the company’s initial public offering in 1971 at a split-adjusted price of less than $0.40 per share. Other Nordstrom family members involved in the proposed acquisition include Bruce Nordstrom’s sister Anne Gittinger, his widow Margaret Jean O’Roark Nordstrom and Erik Nordstrom’s children Leigh, Samuel and Sara Nordstrom, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Nordstrom family last appeared on Forbes’ list of America’s richest families in 2015 with a $3.8 billion net worth.