Harvey Nichols former owner Sir Dickson Poon to sell London mansion for £40m, Digi Mart USA News (London, United Kingdom): The Hong Kong tycoon who formerly owned Harvey Nichols is set to sell his London mansion for £40m amid mounting business challenges.
Sir Dickson Poon, 70, has exchanged contracts for the sale of his historic Georgian townhouse in Belgrave Square, which sits in one of London’s most exclusive postcodes just a few hundred feet away from the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The property was bought by Hamza Lemssouguer, a hedge fund manager, according to the Financial Times.
The historic site was previously home to Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Arthur of Connaught, and its current neighbours include the embassies of Germany and Norway. Mr Lemssouguer is a former Credit Suisse trader who now runs his own firm, Arini Capital Management, which has made a name for itself by betting on distressed corporate debt.
Meanwhile, Sir Dickson’s decision to sell comes as his empire is navigating a rough patch. The Chinese magnate has been an influential figure in British retail since his company, Dickson Concepts, acquired Harvey Nichols from Burton Group in 1991 for £53m.
Nicknamed “Harvey Nicks” and popularised in the television sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, the luxury London department store business expanded to other cities under Sir Dickson’s ownership and opened restaurants. It now carries more than 800 premium and luxury brands and has more than 1,000 employees, with stores in Knightsbridge, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Edinburgh.
However, Sir Dickson put the chain up for sale earlier this year amid mounting pressure on his business empire, with Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group acquiring it for an undisclosed sum. Frasers said the brand was “a British institution with significant potential” but faced “tough choices” to become sustainable again.
The deal includes the Harvey Nichols physical stores in the UK, international franchise partnerships and the company’s online presence. Sir Dickson has stepped back from his former executive chairman duties after Dickson Concepts, which trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, warned that sales and profits were not likely to return to their historic growth rates.
Dickson Concepts has said the chain’s Hong Kong stores are unaffected.
