Liberty has reportedly been put up for sale by its major shareholder, nearly a decade after it last changed hands.

A price tag of £300m has been put on the landmark London department store, Sky News reported.

BlueGem Capital Partners, the private equity house which purchased the retailer in 2010 for around £40m, is said to have contacted UBS to sound out potential bidders.

Liberty could even sell for as much as £350m, according to Sky, and the business is being placed “from a position of strength in a largely bleak retail market”.

According to the most recent Companies House report from Liberty Zeta, the retailer’s holding company, the 53-week period to February 3, 2018 showed profits of £21m versus £19.9m the previous year.

In February last year, Liberty hired Adil Mehboob-Khan as chief executive. Prior to that, it had been without a chief executive since Ed Burstell left in 2016.

BlueGem was set up by the former managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, Marco Capello.

BlueGem declined to comment. UBS has been contacted for comment.