Germany's Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is to be acquired by a consortium of NRDC Equity Partners, a New York-based investment company, and BB Kapital SA, Bernd Beetz's family office, the company announced this week.
The consortium is seeking to acquire and finance Galeria as part of an insolvency plan after the collapse of parent firm Signa, the Austria-based property group which went into administration in late 2023.
Galeria said it would submit the takeover plan to a local court at the end of April and that creditors would have a vote, likely at the end of May.
Insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus said: 'We negotiated intensively with two potential investors and, together with the creditors’ committee, decided on the two investment companies BB Kapital and NRDC Equity Partners. They convinced us with their entrepreneurial courage, a viable economic concept and proven financial solidity.'
'We are pleased that our plan has been unanimously accepted and supported,' said Bernd Beetz. 'We believe in the future of Galeria and have only one focus: the department store. We want to invest, develop and grow in the long term. The next few weeks are crucial to create the conditions for a solid business model. If these requirements are met, we can put Galeria on a successful course.'
Galeria CEO Olivier Van den Bossche said that the sale aimed to keep Galeria as a whole. 'Today we have come significantly closer to this goal,' he commented.
As part of the insolvency proceedings, Stefan Denkhaus is expected to retain control of the company until the end of July 2024, following approval from the creditors' meeting. At this point, NRDC Equity Partners and BB Kapital will step in as owners with the German-American investor consortium acquiring Galeria as a whole and probably taking over more than 70 branches across Germany.
NRDC Equity Partners is a private investment firm with more than 50 million m2 of real estate.
BB Kapital, based in Lugano, Switzerland, was founded in 2012 as a private asset management company by Bernd Beetz following the IPO of the global US cosmetics company Coty Inc. BB Kapital is committed to long-term investments in companies in the luxury and consumer goods segment.
