WH SMITH is in secret talks to sell all its street business in Great Britain over 230 years after opening its first store in the center of London.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that the retail group listed, which has a market capitalization of nearly 1.5 billion pounds sterling, has been in negotiations with a certain number of potential buyers from the division for several weeks.
Wh smith could confirm the plan in a declaration on the London Stock Exchange next week.
The arm of rue de la Société includes around 500 stores, employing around 5,000 people across the country.
It is currently part of the same group as the faster and more profitable travel retail activities of Wh Smith which operate from airports, stations and hospitals.
The retail activity of travel includes 600 stores in the United Kingdom, or about half of a global operation around 1,200 retail travelers.
Greenhill bankers were appointed to manage the sales process for the High Street Street sector, with an agreement scheduled for the coming months.
The identities of probable buyers were not clear on Saturday.
Directed by Carl Cowling, Managing Director, the elimination of his Grande Rue arm and repositioning as a retail company of Pure-Play travel is likely to be welcomed by investors, said an analyst this weekend- end.
Smith’s High Street High Street division, which recorded a flat operating profit of 32 million pounds sterling last year, still largely sells greeting cards, books and stationery, while the arm of Voyage has a wider offer of food and drink and technological products.
The travel company now represents 75% of the company’s income and 85% of the profits, reflecting its higher margins.
It develops particularly quickly on the American market.
The retail activity of the company in hospitals also increases quickly, with 145 stores in 100 hospitals across the United Kingdom, and extended for openings on 200 other sites, he said in his last series results in November.
The news of the potential sale represents a moment of the watershed in the history of the British street.
The first Whsmith store was opened in 1792 by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna to Little Grosvenor Street, London.
The company opened the very first retail store of travel at Euston station in 1848.
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There have been questions about the future of the High Street division of Wh Smith for many years in the middle of carnage elsewhere in the sector, with BHS, Debenhams and Comet all cease to exchange physical stores in the past 15 years.
This week, it appeared that around 15 Wh Smith stores would be closed this year – part of an annual rationalization of its store field.
In 2006, the company’s distribution branch of the company, now known as Smiths News, was dismerged in a separate company in London.
On Friday, the actions of Wh Smith closed to 1148p, having decreased by around 5% in the last 12 months.
This weekend, a spokesperson for Wh Smith refused to comment.