Swedish clothing chain H&M is looking for a buyer for Russian business. This was reported to Kommersant by a source familiar with the purchase offer.

The company is going to sell the lease rights for 170 stores in 65 cities of Russia, a distribution center of 57.7 thousand square meters. m and inventory of $ 210 million.

According to the source, the main contenders for the purchase of Russian H&M were the largest clothing retailers Melon Fashion Group, which unites more than 840 stores of Zarina, Befree, Love Republic and Sela brands, and the Sportmaster group, which has more than 600 outlets.

According to sources interviewed by Kommersant, it will not be easy to find a buyer who will occupy all the areas of the clothing chain and arrange the appropriate volume of supplies. The inventory remaining at the disposal of the Russian H&M may be enough for 9-10 months of operation of a significant part of the stores. At the same time, the company decided to sell products without discounts and liquidations. According to the source, the local top manager hopes that the situation will normalize in a year.

According to experts, if H&M fails to find an owner for its Russian business, the company will start selling rental rights in packages - by format or by city. According to the head of the CORE.XP retail department, Marina Malakhatko, the clothing chain has favorable lease terms that can be terminated unilaterally at any time, which many shopping center owners have already begun to do.

H&M Group opened its first stores in Russia in 2009. The group also includes such brands as Monki, Weekday, Cos, Other Stories, Cheap Monday. After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company suspended the work of Russian business. In July, H&M made the decision to withdraw from the market. The closing of the business was estimated by the clothing chain at 11 billion rubles, half of which will affect the retailer's revenue. In 2021, it amounted to about 75 billion rubles, net profit - 8.8 billion rubles.