House of Fraser, the chain of 60 department stores with 7,300 staff, is in negotiations to be acquired by Sanpower of China for more than £450m.
Sanpower has more than 100 businesses in mainland China, including shopping centres. The firm is run by tycoon Yuan Yafei, whose empire spreads across finance, property, media, transport and IT and now employs 30,000 people with assets worth nearly £5 billion.
Sanpower would inject £70m to £80m into House of Fraser in order to finance a wide-ranging store revamp and website improvements. It might also take the department store into China by opening new stores or changing some existing sites to the House of Fraser name.
House of Fraser, which generates sales of £1.2 billion a year and employs 7,300 people as well as 12,000 concession staff at 60 stores