Thomson, Weston families win Hudson's Bay charter auction with sole bid

The Hudson's Bay Company has chosen the new owners of the royal charter that created the company more than 350 years ago.

The Thomson and Weston families made an uncontested $18-million bid for the 1670 document through their holding companies and will donate it to a group of four museums.

The purchase is subject to court approval as part of the Hudson's Bay insolvency proceedings.

The announcement confirms that no one came forward to bid against the Thomsons and Westons in the Dec. 3 sale hosted by the shuttered retailer and its financial adviser Reflect Advisors.

When the deal closes, the families plan to donate the charter immediately and permanently to the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., and the Royal Ontario Museum.

They will donate another $5 million to support the charter's preservation and help maintain public access to the document. Future support has also been promised by the Desmarais family and Power Corp. of Canada, along with the Hennick Family Foundation.

The charter is among the country's most significant artifacts, because it was King Charles II's way of granting HBC control over one-third of modern Canada and laying the groundwork for colonization.

It's likely no one else made a play for the charter because the Thomsons and Westons are two of the country's richest and most powerful families, making them difficult to face off against.

The Thomsons made their fortune in the media business and once owned a controlling stake in HBC. The Westons are known for their ties to grocery giant Loblaw and department store Holt Renfrew.

Thomas Caldwell, the head of investment firm Urbana Corp. and a former governor of the Toronto Stock Exchange, once mulled placing a bid for the charter but decided not to participate when the families started making offers.

"I like to joke that my patriotism wanes when we get into double-digit millions," he told The Canadian Press in a late November email.

"The goal was to have the charter remain in Canadian hands in a museum here. Given the Westons and Thomsons are co-operating to do just that, then the goal is achieved."

It took the families months to unite and offer a joint bid for the charter, which HBC is selling to put a dent in the more than $1 billion it owed when it filed for creditor protection and closed all its stores earlier this year.

Originally, HBC planned to have Heffel Fine Art Auction House sell the charter but changed its mind in July, when the Westons offered $12.5 million for it through their holding company, Wittington Investments Ltd. They wanted to donate the charter to the Canadian Museum of History, a Crown corporation.