Oil money is eyeing Neiman Marcus, but the shoppers aren’t from Texas.
Deep-pocketed investors from Qatar — the petroleum-soaked Persian Gulf kingdom that owns Harrods in London — are in talks to buy the Dallas-based luxury chain, The Post has learned.
The Qatar Investment Authority, sources said, may shell out upwards of $6 billion for Neiman, parent of the swanky Bergdorf Goodman store on Fifth Avenue.
Neiman’s current owners, the private-equity giants TPG and Warburg Pincus, shelled out $5.1 billion for the retailer in 2005.
Negotiations with Qatar’s investment fund don’t appear to be exclusive, but they “are farther along than people realize,” according to one insider.
Officials at Neiman and TPG, its lead investor, declined to comment. Qatari officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Qatar, which is ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest country, even as it has been blasted by watchdogs for human-rights abuses, is on a luxury buying spree of late.
It recently upped its stake in Tiffany to nearly 13 percent to become the Big Apple jeweler’s biggest investor.
Last month, the Qatari fund cut a deal to acquire Printemps, the iconic Parisian department store, for more than $2 billion.
Qatar’s upscale portfolio includes Porsche and French luxury conglomerate LVMH.
A sale to a sovereign fund was the “first option” pegged by Credit Suisse after the bank was hired this spring to explore strategic alternatives, according to a source.
Credit Suisse has likewise trained its sights on the investment arms of Kuwait and Singapore, which together acquired a 5 percent stake in TPG two years ago. Qatar, meanwhile, owns 6 percent of Credit Suisse.
Management presentations with prospective bidders are slated for the coming weeks when additional suitors are expected to enter the fray, sources said.
Recent speculation about a possible merger of Neiman and Saks appears increasingly unlikely as the market value of Saks has ballooned, insiders said.
Last week, The Post exclusively reported that Saks has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale, sending Saks shares surging as much as 20 percent.
Qatar’s interest in Neiman, however, could steal an important bidder from Saks, one source noted.
“Saks may not have the same appeal overseas” as Neiman, according to the source.