Canada's Weston family selling off Selfridges luxury store chain

Thailand’s Central Group and Austrian real estate group Signa said Friday they plan to buy luxury British department store chain Selfridges.

The deal, reportedly worth 4 billion pounds ($6.88 billion Cdn), adds to Central’s collection of posh retailers that includes Rinascente in Italy, Illum in Denmark, Switzerland’s Globus and The KaDeWe Group in Germany.

Selfridges was founded in 1908 by Harry Gordon Selfridge and is controlled by the billionaire Weston family of Canada. The group owns 18 department stores including a historic property in London’s Oxford Street shopping district.

People look at a display window in the Selfridges store on