New court filings show a holding company owned by David Thomson, of Thomson Reuters, wants to buy the royal charter that formed the Hudson’s Bay retailer for at least $15 million and donate it to the Archives of Manitoba.
The department store previously announced it would seek court approval next month to sell the charter for $12.5 million to a holding company belonging to the Weston family, which intends to donate it to the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.
An affidavit from a director at Thomson’s holding company DRKT says he was taken aback by the Westons’ purchase price because it is significantly lower than what David Thomson and experts expected the charter to fetch.
Rather than move forward with the sale to the Westons, the affidavit suggests the family’s offer should serve as a minimum bid in an open auction.
If a court agrees to that approach, the affidavit says Thomson is willing to place bids beyond his initial $15 million offer.
The charter was issued by King Charles II in 1670 and gave the Bay rights to a vast swath of land spanning most of Canada and extraordinary power over trade and Indigenous relations for decades.
The document became available after the Bay filed for creditor protection in March under the weight of tremendous debt. To recover whatever cash it could for creditors, it liquidated all of its stores and hatched a plan to put its most prized possessions — 1,700 art pieces and 2,700 artifacts — on the auction block.
Before an auction could begin, the Westons swooped in, pitching the Bay on a $12.5 million purchase of the charter and immediate donation of the document.
The Archives of Manitoba, located in downtown Winnipeg, is mandated under provincial legislation to preserve the archival records of the Manitoba government and its agencies, the courts and the legislature. Its holdings are also “a rich resource” for the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company, according to the website of the provincial archives.
