Hudson’s Bay garnered 17 bids in process to find new owner for retailer, assets: docs

Bay branded products are seen on display in the Hudson's Bay store in Toronto on March 10, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — A new court filing shows a process meant to find a new owner for Hudson’s Bay and its assets has yielded 17 bids.

A report filed Friday by Alvarez & Marsal, a court monitoring firm guiding Canada’s oldest company through creditor protection, does not name the bidders but says the offers were made after it reached out to 407 potential buyers.

Fifty-four of the 407 signed a non-disclosure agreement to get access to Bay data to decide whether to place a binding bid, but less than half wound up making a formal offer.

The court document says Hudson’s Bay and those involved in selecting a winner are now evaluating the offers and having discussions with those who made bids.

It is possible there will be several winners in the retailer’s sales process because some buyers want to run stores while others just want rights to its brands -- its multicoloured Stripes motif, discount chain Zellers, housewares brand Gluckstein, apparel line Hudson North and its Distinctly Home bed and bath products.

B.C. mall owner Weihong Liu and Toronto investment manager Urbana Corp. have both gone public with their bids. Liu has said she intends to run 25 Hudson’s Bay stores, while Urbana only wants the company’s intellectual property.

Two sources familiar with the process, who were unauthorized to speak on the matter, have said Canadian Tire is also vying for the intellectual property.

On a Thursday earnings conference call, Canadian Tire CEO Greg Hicks said his company was not contemplating an acquisition of the Bay’s entire operations because “that is just not a good fit for us right now, given all the things we have going on.”

He did not confirm whether Canadian Tire made an offer for any Bay brands, but said, “we have always considered attractive tuck-ins and brands and this time period is no different on that front.”

While processes soliciting buyers for assets belonging to faltering companies can attract many bids, some make long-shot offers just to gain access to proprietary data. Others make bids that are ultimately deemed unviable.

If Hudson’s Bay and those involved in its sales process find several bids meet their criteria and they want to hold an auction, they have to do so by May 16.

By May 30, they must seek court approval for any deals they reach.

Separate from the hunt for buyers for its assets is another process looking for businesses to take over the 80 leases held by the Bay and another 16 the Saks banners had. Friday’s court document says some companies have made bids in both processes.

A first round of soliciting offers for the leases attracted bids from 18 unnamed parties who collectively wanted 65 properties.

A second round has whittled down the pack to 12 parties wanting a total of 39 leases, with some bidders making a play for the same locations, the new court filing said.

No bids have been made for 62 leases, and four properties have already been returned to landlords.

As Hudson’s Bay and its advisers work to settle on who should get the leases and assets, the 355-year-old retailer is liquidating all of its stores.

The new court filing says those sales will continue until June 1, followed by a period of up to two weeks when people who have bought the company’s furniture, fixtures and equipment will be able to retrieve their purchases.

The filing says about 90 per cent of the inventory from distribution centres has been delivered to stores and the remaining inventory, excluding a small amount of “big-ticket furniture,” will arrive by May 16.

The court filing also gave an update on preparations for an upcoming auction of Hudson’s Bay’s 4,400 pieces of art and artifacts, including the royal charter that founded the company.

Several archival institutes and Indigenous groups have objected to the possibility of these pieces falling into private hands.

The court report says some groups, which it did not name, have been able to view the art collection and others have been told they can access a catalogue of its contents if they sign a non-disclosure agreement.

It adds that “much of Hudson’s Bay’s art and artifacts were donated to the Archives of Manitoba in 1993 -- as such, many items with historical and cultural significance had been donated and were out of the company’s possession well prior to” the company filing for creditor’s protection.

The report’s release sets up Hudson’s Bay’s return to court Tuesday, when it is expected to seek permission to extend its creditor protection, currently in place until May 15, to July 31. It will also ask for permission to repay as much as $165 million to its senior lenders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press