By Chris Nicholls

MELBOURNE: Retravision Southern’s retail division is selling the five Melbourne suburbs stores it acquired last year from Peter McKnight.

The stores, located in Ringwood, Taylor’s Lakes, Epping, Moorabbin and Mentone, are up for sale individually or as a group, according to Retravision Southern chief financial officer John Raciti.

Raciti said the sale was part of the company’s exit strategy, devised when it purchased the stores in May last year.

The broker for the sale, Kew-based Corporate Business Brokers, was currently dealing with “a couple of options” with regard to the sale, said Raciti. However, he would not elaborate further.

The sale was also intended to keep the stores as Retravision outlets, he said.

Roger Anderson, the broker in charge of the sale, confirmed there had been two established retailers who had contacted him regarding the purchase of all five stores.

“Preference, I would say, is to sell as a group, which has advantages, obviously, for an existing retailer wanting to get into the Retravision grouping, and of course … there is a shareholding issue, so therefore you only need to buy one shareholding.”

He said one offer came in late last year, while the other came in this month.