Arcandor, the insolvent German retailer, plans to sell its Karstadt department store chain by the end of the April after creditors abandoned the majority of their claims.
Arcandor, the insolvent German retailer, plans to sell its Karstadt department store chain by the end of the April after creditors abandoned the majority of their claims.
Under a four-stage insolvency plan presented last week, Karstadt would continue to operate under new owners, thereby safeguarding around 26,000 jobs. Karstadt will hold a ‘crisis meeting’ in mid-April, when the insolvency plans should be confirmed, said Thomas Schultz, a spokesman for administrator Klaus Hubert Görg.
Schulz said there were currently six interested buyers for the operational assets, including private equity firms.
Karstadt rents all of its stores in Germany, the majority of which are owned by the Highstreet consortium comprising Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Funds (51%), Deutsche Bank's RREEF funds (24%), Milan-based Pirelli Real Estate (12%), Generali (11%) and the Borletti Group. The investors own a portfolio of 95 properties occupied by Karstadt including 45 Karstadt stores, plus about 50 Karstadt car parks, offices and logistics properties across Germany.
Arcandor was forced into administration last June after the German government rejected calls for both a state loan guarantee and rescue aid.
Read the April edition of PropertyEU Magazine for more details on the candidate buyers for Karstadt