Waterstones to accelerate expansion after sale

Waterstones is to accelerate its expansion plans after being sold to US hedge fund Elliott Advisors, the book chain’s chief executive has said.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, ends seven years of ownership under Lynwood Investments – the investment vehicle of Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut – though it will retain a minority stake.

The bookseller will continue to be led by James Daunt, who was appointed in 2011. He dismissed any suggestion that closures may be on the horizon as a result of the sale.

He said: “We’re very much in expansion mode. We’ve been very distracted through the sale process and we’ve still opened eight shopstowardsthebackend of 2017, and we’ve opened three in the last ten days.”

Waterstones currently operates more than 280 bookshops across the UK.