Department store group Hema is to be sold to UK investment company Lion Capital. The deal was finalised by Hema parent company Maxeda on Friday night.

Hema director Ronald van Zetten said he was ‘extremely pleased’ with the deal. Lion Capital owns the shoe company Jimmy Choo, the Wagamama noodle chain and French soft drink firm Orangina among others.
Analysts said they expected Maxeda to have been paid at least €1bn for the Dutch company which has over 300 outlets in the Netherlands, 50 in Belgium and three in Germany.
The Financieele Dagblad put the price at €1.1bn to €1.2bn including debts of up to €100m.
The paper says Lion beat off Dutch retailers such as Jaap Blokker of the Blokker household goods chain and Roland Kahn of clothing chain Cool Cat. The paper says Maxeda is now planning to sell off the Praxis DIY chain.