Nordstrom, one of the Top 25 retailers of home textiles in the U.S. market, may join the ranks of other public retail companies that have gone private.
Late last week, the retailer’s board of directors formed a special committee to consider the idea of taking Nordstrom private. It is doing so in response to Erik and Pete Nordstrom, the company’s CEO and president, respectively, who expressed interest in the potential shareholder value of a go-private transaction.
Erik Nordstrom owns 7.45% of the company’s outstanding shares, and Pete Nordstrom owns 7.41%, according to a recent SEC filing. They might pursue debt and/or equity financing to fund a go-private transaction, but they have currently not secured any such commitments, the document reported.
The Nordstrom family collectively owns roughly 30% of the company’s outstanding shares.
This marks the second time in 6 years that members of the Nordstrom family have moved to pull the company off the public exchange. In 2018, a special committee rejected an initial proposal from the Nordstrom family to do so. At the time, the Nordstrom family was working with private equity firm Leonard Green and was in conversations with other outside parties about providing additional financing.
The 123-year-old Nordstrom company operates more than 350 Nordstrom, Nordstrom Local and Nordstrom Rack locations.