Billionaire Spotlight owners swoop in to save Harris Scarfe from shut down
The collapse of Harris Scarfe marked just one in a series of shock Aussie retail closures. But now, an unlikely saviour may be on its horizon — in the form of one seriously cashed-up competitor.
Business
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The Spotlight retail empire, owned by the Melbourne-based Fraid family that’s estimated to be worth more that $1.65 billion, has won rights to buy failed department store Harris Scarfe.
Harris Scarfe was placed into voluntary administration two weeks before Christmas.
It was the second time the retailer has collapsed and its administrators at Deloitte have been searching for a buyer since.
On Tuesday, administrators and receivers advised they had granted exclusivity to the Spotlight Group to buy the business. The sale came after a vigorous due diligence process which saw four parties short-listed and given access to the key trading records of the business.
“The Spotlight Group is a family-owned, longstanding and highly experienced Australasian retailer with a large property portfolio ideally suited to enabling future growth for Harris Scarfe employees and all stakeholders,’’ the administrators said.
Spotlight is a nationwide fabric, craft and home decor business owned by the Fraid brothers and run by their family.
It also owns the Anaconda outdoor adventurewear chain and the family also recently took a stake and board position in last year’s sharemarket float of banker David DiPilla’s HomeCo, a convenience retail property group.
The receivers are seeking to secure the ongoing employment for the remaining 1300 Harris Scarfe staff and the survival of this 170-year-old Australian business.
“There is still a lot of work we need to do together to finalise the transaction and we will be working with the Spotlight Group and the Harris Scarfe leadership team to make this happen,” said Vaughan Strawbridge, one of the receivers from Deloitte.
“We are hopeful all of the 44 stores will be retained under the sale but ultimately, this will be dependent on how the transaction progresses over the next couple of weeks.”
It is expected a settlement of a sale could happen as early as the middle of April.
MORE NEWS
CRUNCH TIME FOR SLIMMED-DOWN HARRIS SCARFE
HARRIS SCARFE FALLS INTO ADMINISTRATION
WESTFIELD BOSSES’ HARD LINE AGAINST HARRIS SCARFE OWNER
This report originally appeared in The Australian, read it here.
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