Why Mexican department store Liverpool is eyeing Nordstrom

High-end Mexican department store Liverpool made its interest in Nordstrom known last month when it became its second-largest stakeholder after the Nordstrom family. 

It acquired a 9.9% passive stake in Nordstrom for about 5.9 billion pesos ($293.8 million). Data from Refitiv shows that Liverpool has a larger stake than Nordstrom heiress Anne Gittinger who held 9.7% of shares, and is just short of former chairman Bruce Nordstrom who held a 15.9% stake in the company. Nordstrom has already initiated a poison pill, a shareholder rights plan that would make it harder for Liverpool to take over the company.

Liverpool or El Puerto de Liverpool is a large department store chain that sells apparel, cosmetics and technology, among other items. Its annual revenue in 2021 grew by 30.8% to over 151 billion Mexican pesos (about $7.5 billion), making it smaller than Nordstrom whose total revenue for the 12-month period ending Jan. 29 was $14.8 billion. Experts interviewed by Modern Retail said the department store’s acquisition of Nordstrom shares could be Liverpool’s attempt to gain knowledge from Nordstrom and diversify its business rather than an acquisition. 

“They’re definitely one of the main players in there when you’re looking within Mexico itself,” said Matteo Ceurvels, senior analyst for Latin America and Spain at Insider Intelligence. He said that the company has performed exceptionally well over the past few quarters. “They’ve been a long staple of the Mexican retail ecosystem,” he added.

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