Money

Topshop’s top shop goes up for sale in latest blow for Philip Green


The prime location of Topshop’s Oxford Street store has gone on sale for as much as £420m in the latest step in the dismantling of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire.

A US property investment bank, Eastdil Secured, is seeking buyers for the site after Green’s company, Arcadia, collapsed into administration in November.

The sale process has been named Project Infinity by administrators at KPMG, who were appointed to oversee Redcastle (214 Oxford Street) Limited, the Arcadia company that officially owned the building.

The building was valued at about £500m as recently as two years ago, according to the Sunday Times, which first reported details of the sale process. However, the pandemic has accelerated the move to online shopping, meaning commercial property values have fallen.

The private equity firm Apollo will receive the first £311.6m of a sale of the property as it was Redcastle’s senior secured creditor. The Arcadia pension fund is the second secured creditor, with a deficit of £185m, according to administrators’ proposals.

The change in ownership will come at a time of upheaval on Oxford Street, with Marks & Spencer and John Lewis among the large shops seeking to redesign their properties in light of the shift to online sales.

Green took control of Topshop in 2002, when his investment company bought Arcadia. He made huge amounts of money from the business, including a £1.2bn dividend in 2005 to his Monaco resident wife, Tina Green, the legal owner.

However, the retail businesses stuttered under pressure from more nimble online rivals, and coronavirus pandemic closures eventually forced Arcadia into administration.

The collapse of Arcadia imperilled as many as 13,000 jobs and meant the breakup of a group whose brands included Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Burton.

Online retailer Asos bought the Topshop and Miss Selfridge brands for £330m in February, but did not buy any stores. Boohoo, an online fast fashion rival, paid £25m for the Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands.

The administration of the various parts of Green’s empire has even included the sale of superyacht-style furniture from Arcadia’s boardroom.

The Oxford Street building played a key role in Topshop’s history. The brand was first created in a Sheffield branch of the Burton clothing chain. In 1965 Topshop took over the basement of the Oxford Street building, which started life as the Peter Robinson department store before Burton bought it.

More recently it hosted events such as the launch of clothing lines designed by Kate Moss during Topshop and Green’s pre-internet heyday.

The building, which was completed in 1923, is listed as Grade II, with the listing noting its Portland stone cladding and its classical style with Beaux Arts details. It is located on the junction of two major shopping streets, Oxford Street and Regent Street, and currently houses a large Nike shop and a Vans shoe store.

KPMG declined to comment. Eastdil Secured did not respond to a request for comment.



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