Billionaire Weihong Ruby Liu pays deposit for HBC asset bid

Weihong (Ruby) Liu has reportedly put down a 10-per-cent deposit for 25 Hudson’s Bay Co. stores, indicating that the billionaire B.C. mall-owner is serious about her bid for assets belonging to the liquidating company.

“Money has already been paid,” she reportedly told the Toronto Star through a translator on the morning of April 30.

Binding bids for the company’s assets were due later that day, along with a refundable deposit of 10 per cent of the bid price, suggesting that Liu met the deadline and remains a viable contender.

Liu owns three B.C. shopping centres—Mayfair in Victoria, Tsawwassen Mills in Delta and Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo—through investment firm Central Walk.

Telephone calls to the number listed on the firm’s website went directly to the guest services desk at Woodgrove, where a receptionist said they did not have any information on Liu’s HBC bid. Emails to the company and an HBC spokesperson also went unanswered.

Meanwhile, social media content appears to confirm that Liu continues to actively pursue her bid. A video on Chinese platform RedNote dated May 5 appears to show Liu attempting to recruit bilingual workers “for over 20 stores in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.”

Retail consultant Craig Patterson, owner of Retail Insider Media Ltd., said he’s seen social videos of Liu recently travelling to China to look at different retail concepts.

“They’re recruiting big-time, she’s looking for investors. I don’t know how successful she’ll ultimately be with what she’s doing because there’s a few complications around timing and whatnot, but I think she’s serious in terms of this happening,” he said.

“She may end up bringing a substantially different concept in from what we’re used to.”

Another, unconfirmed contender is Richard Baker, the current owner of HBC, as suggested by the release of insider bid protocols.

“I honestly don’t know who else [it could be], it could be someone else in the company itself, like one of the directors perhaps, but my thought was it could very well be Richard Baker himself,” Patterson said. “But there hasn’t been a formal announcement.”

If successful, Patterson said Liu would likely have to pay rent for some of HBC’s anchor locations in June, “which means that this is going to start getting expensive.” If the successful bidder isn’t identified until mid-May, this would give Liu about a month to perform capital improvements and spin HBC into a new, exciting retail concept.

“If she’s really serious about it, she’s going to want to renovate,” Patterson said. “Some of the Bay stores are in terrible shape, I mean the escalators don’t even work.”

Liu has said on social media that she wants to purchase stores to “restore The Bay to its glory.”

If her bid triumphs, Patterson expects a more experiential format that would emphasize food and beverage.

“This could be something that could be quite successful in Canada,” he said.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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