Troubled retail stores giant Blokker has already begun selling off some of its high-street retail chains as announced earlier this week, the Financieele Dagblad said on Friday.

Blokker Holding is about to sell its budget furniture store group Leen Bakker to investment group Gilde Equity Management which already owns the similarly-sized and targeted Kwantum stores, the paper said.

Insiders say it seems likely that Gilde will combine certain operations – such as buying – of the two retail chains. Financial details were not disclosed. Blokker does not report separate figures for its retail stores subsidiaries.

Retail expert Raul Moers said earlier Leen Bakker was one of the better components Blokker wants to sell off. Blokker said on 16 May it planned to divest Leen Bakker, Intertoys, Maxi Toys, Big Bazar and Xenos to concentrate on its flagship Blokker stores chain.

Founded in Rotterdam in 1928, Leen Bakker was sold to the Blokker family in 1988. The furniture unit had 179 outlets in the Benelux countries and the Netherlands Antilles and turned over €325m in the broken 2015-2016 fiscal year.