Ian Guider: Mystery bidder’s Selfridges offer is a £4bn bet on the high street

The approach for the group, which includes Brown Thomas and Arnotts, comes at a critical time for retail, and for our city centres

The Selfridges store in London is practically the last standing department store on Oxford Street following the closure of Debenhams and House of Fraser. Picture: Getty

What will be the next chapter in the history of the Weston family-owned Selfridges department store and its Irish siblings Brown Thomas and Arnotts?

The founder of the Oxford Street Selfridges store has already been the subject of a long-running television drama. Arnotts can trace its roots back almost 180 years, although its more recent history will form part of the chronicles of the Celtic Tiger and a battle between property developers, before it became ...