Thomson, Weston families’ bid for Hudson’s Bay charter to go uncontested: source

The 1670 royal charter signed by King Charles II establishing Hudson's Bay, is shown on display at the Manitoba Museum where it was loaned to be displayed alongside its permanent collection of Hudson's Bay artifacts, in this 2020 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Manitoba Museum (Mandatory Credit)

TORONTO — No competing bids for Hudson’s Bay’s royal charter have emerged, paving the way for the Thomson and Weston families to purchase the artifact for $18 million, a source says.

The Canadian Press is not naming the source familiar with the auction process because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The charter signed by King Charles II in 1670 is one of the oldest documents connected to Canada and even predates the country. It created Hudson’s Bay and gave the business a fur-trading monopoly along with control of one-third of modern Canada and Indigenous relations for decades to come.

It has been in need of a new home since HBC filed for creditor protection in March and began selling assets, including its leases and 4,400 pieces of art and artifacts, to make back some of the $1 billion it owed creditors.

DKRT Family Corp. and Wittington Investments Ltd. — holding companies belonging to the Thomsons and Westons, respectively — were set to jointly offer $18 million as a starting bid in an auction scheduled for Wednesday.

Anyone wanting to participate in the sale had to signal their interest to HBC’s financial adviser Reflect Advisors by last Friday and agree to donate the charter to a public Canadian institution.

With no one willing to square off against the families, who are among the wealthiest in the country, the bid will likely be named the successful one for the charter. If HBC deems them victorious, it will still need a court’s approval for the sale to go through.

Lawyers for both families and a spokesperson for HBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The Thomsons and Westons have said they plan to immediately and permanently donate the charter to the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.

While the four institutions will share the document equally, the Thomsons and Westons would like the charter to go on display first in Winnipeg, where HBC was based after moving its headquarters from England. It later moved to Toronto.

The Thomsons are best known for being media barons. They are the namesake in tech conglomerate Thomson Reuters Corp. The Westons are known for their ties to grocery giant Loblaw Cos. Ltd.

Both families made plays for the charter earlier this year, but more recently, decided to band together and make a joint bid.

Their promised donation of the charter will come with $5 million they offered to help fund the conservation, education and tours for the document.

The Desmarais family and Power Corp. of Canada, along with the Hennick Family Foundation, have also committed additional support.

If the Thomsons and Westons are accepted by the Ontario Superior Court as successful purchasers for the charter, it will end a months-long saga to determine the document’s fate.

When HBC first started winding down, it planned to auction off the document once displayed at its head office.

In July, the Westons offered $12.5 million through Wittington to buy the charter outright. They wanted to donate it to the Canadian Museum of History, a Crown corporation in Gatineau, Que., and spend $1 million on conservation and sharing of the charter.

HBC was prepared to accept the offer and call off the auction but then David Thomson came forward.

Through DKRT, he argued HBC should stick with an auction. If it did, he’d started the bidding at $15 million and if he won, he’d hand it to the Archives of Manitoba along with $2 million for touring and preservation.

HBC appeared pleased with that plan and headed to court to ask for permission to go with it, but the morning of the hearing, it instead asked for an adjournment.

It said it needed the adjournment because it had received an unsolicited offer for the charter but did not say who had made the overture.

That offer was eventually revealed to have come from the Thomsons and Westons, who decided to unite with a joint bid expiring at the end of this year.

HBC decided to take the offer and make it the starting bid in an auction process the court approved last month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2025.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press