The Biggest Item in The Book

The Neiman Marcus Group (Dallas) is set to announce that it has agreed to be sold for about $5 billion to private equity firms Texas Pacific Group (Fort Worth, Texas) and Warburg Pincus LLC (New York).

Texas Pacific Group also owns J. Crew (New York), Petco (San Diego) and Burger King (Miami).

Under the terms of the deal, the firms will pay $100 a share for Neiman, shares of which closed at $98.32 on Friday.

The two buyers have expressed plans to expand by increasing the number of Neiman stores, opening in places like Seattle, for example, a city with an affluent audience but no Neiman’s store. They may also consider expanding the number of Bergdorf Goodman stores. Bergdorf — the ultimate luxury frashion retail name — currently has only two stores in the country, a men’s and a women’s store across the street from one another in midtown Manhattan.

Burton Tansky, who as Neiman’s president and ceo has led the company through its recent renaissance, will continue to run the company. Under Tansky, even during weaker periods in the industry, Neiman’s customer has remained amazingly faithful. “She may buy less,” he said recently, referring to the typical customer during the retailing weakness of the late 1990s, “but she never deserted us.”

Texas Pacific and Warburg beat out rival offers from a group composed of Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. (New York) and Bain Capital LLC (Boston), which recently acquired Toys “R” Us (Wayne, N.J.), and another bid from Thomas H. Lee Partners (Boston) and The Blackstone Group (New York).

Before the deal is completed, Neiman is expected to sell its private label credit card business, the executives said. That business, which has already received offers from buyers like American Express and Citigroup, is expected to sell for more than $500 million.