A new bidder has emerged for the company that owns Saks Fifth Avenue — and he’s mainly interested in the Fifth Avenue part.
Barry Sternlicht — the New York real-estate titan who created W Hotels — has submitted a bid for the swanky department-store chain, The Post has learned.
While the size of the bid couldn’t be learned, one source said Sternlicht is offering between $17 and $18 a share, or roughly $2.5 billion — on par with an offer from Hudson’s Bay, the Canada-based owner of Lord & Taylor.
A second source, however, cautioned that the figure may represent the final price the bidders would be willing to pay to close any deal.
Initial bids, according to the source, may have come in lower, in the $15 to $16 range.
Saks shares surged more than 8 percent yesterday afternoon on news of Sternlicht’s interest in Saks, first reported on nypost.com.
Shares soared $1.21, to close at $15.89.
Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital may be emerging as the surprise leader in what is shaping up as a three-horse race for Saks, sources said.
Some insiders believe that’s partly because Sternlicht, unlike Hudson’s Bay, envisions Saks CEO Steve Sadove remaining in his role.
A third bidder, believed to be a Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth fund, most likely the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar, is said to be in the running.
As exclusively reported by The Post, the Qataris were in advanced talks to acquire Neiman Marcus this spring. Those talks cooled, spurring Neiman to file for a public stock offering last month.
“Barry is salivating over the Fifth Avenue flagship,” according to a source close to Sternlicht, noting that the retailer’s iconic store next door to St. Patrick’s Cathedral has been valued by some analysts at upward of $1 billion.
Representatives for Sternlicht didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Saks declined comment.
The sales process is being overseen by Goldman Sachs.
Saks owns about two-thirds of its stores, and the value of its real-estate holdings alone is estimated to be at least $1.5 billion.
Sternlicht, sources said, has floated a plan that would split Saks’ real-estate holdings from its operations — wherein the retailer would lease the space.
That could generate short-term gains, but it’s also a risky move that could pressure the profitability of Saks stores, even as they continue a multiyear struggle to raise operating margins.
“The company would be taking on a lot of debt, and this could exacerbate the situation for the stores,” according to one source.
Nevertheless, in addition to keeping his job under a Sternlicht purchase, Sadove would collect a change-of-control payout worth more than $20 million, according to insiders.
“Steve has made no secret of the fact that he has enjoyed being CEO of Saks,” a source said of Sadove.
Hudson’s Bay chairman Richard Baker, a New York real-estate mogul who previously had been viewed as the most likely winner in an auction of Saks, already has a strong bench of retail execs, sources noted.
Baker, according to one source, “is a shrewd customer and won’t overpay.”