Ikea has reportedly held advanced talks to take over the former Topshop flagship store Oxford Street as part of a strategy to expand into city centres, This is Money has reported.
According to reports, the furniture giant previously considered moving into other buildings on Oxford Street, including the former BHS, but is understood to have “shown a serious interest” in the former Topshop site.
Sources added that moving into the former Arcadia premises would “be a major statement of Ikea’s global ambitions for the new raft of stores”.
News of the potential takeover comes one week after Topshop reportedly kicked off the sales process of its former flagship store for a price tag of £420m.
Valued at £500m two years ago, the six-storey site is considered a Grade II listed building and is being advertised as a “new age retail concept”.
Named Project Infinity, the sales process is fronted by real estate adviser Eastdil Secured on behalf of KPMG, which was appointed administrator to Redcastle 214, which was the company that owned the building when Arcadia collapsed in December last year.
The first £311.6m of any sale will go to private equity firm Apollo, which lent against the building in 2019, with further proceeds going to Arcadia’s pension scheme, which had a deficit of £510m when Arcadia fell into administration.
