By Craig Zammit

SYDNEY: Coles Myer has announced it has completed the sale of the Myer department store chain to TPG-Newbridge Capital and the Myer Family for $1.4 billion prior to the retailer’s winter stocktake sale.

TPG-Newbridge will assume control of Myer immediately.

“The transition arrangements have been carefully designed to ensure business continuity for Myer and to ensure the sale process is seamless for customers,” Coles Myer CEO, John Fletcher said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday.

“Myer managing director Dawn Robertson leaves Myer in the knowledge that her leadership has been instrumental in restoring a department store icon and enabling Coles Myer to realise the value of the business.”

Myer flagship stores around the country will open at 7.00am tomorrow morning and close at midnight for the opening day of the company’s stocktake sale.

Touted as the biggest sales event in the Southern Hemisphere, Myer is expecting 843 people every minute and 50,000 people every hour to enter Myer stores during the opening day.

Over 334,000 register transactions are expected to occur during the first day of the store wide stocktake event, which equates to 400 transactions every minute.

In a statement issued by Myer this morning, over 700,000 people across the country are expected to attend the sales event on the first day alone and over 12.5 million people during the course of the event.

With an Australian population at 20,090,437, Myer expects one in 28 Australian residents to visit its store tomorrow and over half of the entire Australian population during the event.

A spokesperson from Myer told current.com.au that she was unable to reveal the source of the data used to predict the number of visitiors to its stores.