Bonhams auction house is once again up for sale, as its owner, private-equity firm Epiris, ponders offloading the company it acquired five years earlier, according to Bloomberg.
Epiris has been working with JPMorgan Chase to determine interest in Bonhams and advise in a possible sale. The financial service provider is seeking up to $1 billion for the auction house, the report noted.
The company bought the London-based Bonhams in 2018 for an undisclosed amount. At the time, it had seven sale rooms around the world, including London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
Over the past five years, Bonhams has acquired several smaller auction houses, including Stockholm, Sweden-based Bukowskis in January 2022 and US-based Skinner in March of that year. Bonhams sells jewelry, art and wine, among other offerings.
Deliberations are still in the early stages, and there is no hard deal on the table yet, the report added. Bonhams’s annual sales surpassed $1 billion in 2022.
Image: A Bonhams auction house in London. (Shutterstock)
