Teoh Capital, the family company of TPG founder David Teoh, is in due diligence to acquire David Jones.

According to the AFR, Teoh is in competition with private equity investor Anchorage Capital, who is reportedly considering a consortium offer with other property investors.

Teoh Capital was established by David Teoh, and is owned by his son, Shane, Jack, Bob and John Teoh.

David Jones would be an odd purchase for Teoh, who has traditionally invested in technology and software-as-a-service companies, and not in brick-and-mortar retail offerings.

The firm does have investments in Oscar Wylee, which started life as an online glasses seller, but has since ballooned to over 135 physical stores across Australia, New Zealand and Canada – so physical retail isn’t completely foreign to them.

Its likely that the real estate holdings, which include David Jones’ flagship Bourke Street building, are more of interest to the Teoh family.

South African owners Woolworths Holdings’ CEO Roy Bagattini was in Australia last week, looking for potential suitors. Woolworths paid more than $2 billion for the department store giant in 2014, and is hopeful of a sale by the new year.

Anchorage has reportedly lined up $150 million in working capital, and $50 million in guarantees, to fund its bid, and is believed to be frontrunner for the sale.

Last month, during the retailer’s annual report, Bagattini stated that the department store giant is in a favourable financial position to sell.

“Whilst we will continue to refine our strategies, our focus is now primarily on execution, and we have already made demonstrable progress in this regard over the past year,” he wrote.

“David Jones is now debt free, self-funding, and has a clear roadmap to improving profitability, and as such, we are in a favourable position to explore all future options in respect of this business, and how best to further unlock value for the group and our shareholders.

“Having successfully executed against our balance sheet and income statement priorities, we are now evaluating all possible ­options to unlocking value for Woolworths Holdings and its shareholders.”