The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has bought almost half of luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus.
The deal, which sees investment adviser group Ares Management also take almost half of the retailer and a minority holding given to the Neiman Marcus management team, is reported to have been agreed at $6 billion.
The Dallas-based retailer operates 41 namesake department stores along with the famed Bergdorf Goodman store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and the Last Call outlet chain.
Andre Bourbonnais, senior vice president of private investments at the CPPIB told Reuters the deal had come “at a good time”.
“People feel more and more confident about the recovery in the US and the sustainability of that recovery,” he added.
The CPPIB already owns several assets in real estate and infrastructure, including shopping malls.
Bourbonnais said the fund was drawn to the Neiman Marcus deal in part by the expectation of an increase in US luxury spending.
It’s not all high-end retail however – the pension fund also has holdings at the other end of the market in dollar stores, as part of what it calls a “barbell” strategy.
In related news, in July Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invested $500 million in Hudson’s Bay Co, helping it to acquire another US luxury retailer, Saks, for $2.9 billion.
UK pension funds are picking up on the retail bug too—last month the Mars pension fund acquired a string of UK shopping centres, and the £13 billion Strathclyde Pension Fund bought a former retailers’ basement to turn it into a restaurant.
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