early next week goes Karstadt to 100 percent of the Austrian investor Rene Benko. The previous owner Berggruen is retiring from the company.
A Karstadt store in Hamburg | © Christian Charisius / Reuters
The department store chain Karstadt has a new owner: The Signa Holding the Austrian investor Rene Benko takes over the ailing group. already go to beginning of next week all 83 houses of the Karstadt department store GmbH in Signa, said the holding company. A purchase price was not paid.
Nicolas Berggruen, the Karstadt had picked up from a Euro out of bankruptcy for the symbolic price in 2010, will therefore withdraw completely from the company. “We clear the way for a new beginning,” he said. Berggruen is also its minority stake in the Karstadt Premium houses and Karstadt-Sport branches from
“We are already extensively involved at Karstadt – thus the complete takeover of the Karstadt department store GmbH was given the current situation, the logical consequence.” said Signa CEO tungsten wedge. Signa take over the operational responsibility and procure the Company clarity on the future ownership structure. The main objective is it now, that tranquility einkehre in the group and quickly advise the next steps of a viable recovery strategy would be adopted and implemented.
Berggruen had Karstadt acquired after the bankruptcy of Arcandor Group in 2010. At that time he was also celebrated by the employees as a savior. That changed when he failed to restructure Karstadt. Employee representatives had him repeatedly accused of not investing in the department store business. 2012 announced Karstadt to the loss of around 2,000 jobs. In the spring of 2013, the company, which employs about 20,000 people rose out of the regional collective agreements for retail.
Karstadt council had expressed before approving the transfer positively to Signa. With Benko Karstadt had a future, said chief General Works Hellmut Patzelt. “We have concepts for greater regionalism and variability that could be implemented without large investments,” he said.
With the acquisition, there is renewed speculation about a merger of Karstadt department store chain Kaufhof with. Benko had tried unsuccessfully in the past to a Kaufhof takeover.
No comments:
Post a Comment