House of Fraser eyes IPO after Galeries Lafayette talks end: FT

LONDON (Reuters) - British department store chain House of Fraser is pushing ahead with a return to the stock market after talks about a sale to its French counterpart Galeries Lafayette ended, the Financial Times said on its website on Thursday. Industry sources said last month the companies were discussing a deal that would see Galeries Lafayette, which has 65 stores and annual revenue of 2.3 billion euros ($3.15 billion), buy the 160-year-old British chain, which has yearly sales of about 1.2 billion pounds ($2 billion). The FT said House of Fraser had decided to press ahead with a listing, citing people familiar with the situation, saying it was thought that it could obtain a better valuation through an IPO than a trade sale. House of Fraser declined to comment. Galeries Lafayette was not immediately available to comment. (Reporting by Paul Sandle, Neil Maidment and Pascale Denis; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)