The contract for the remaining 92 department stores will be awarded to the American investor NRDC Equity Partners, the newspaper Handelsblatt reported, referring to negotiating circles. On Monday afternoon Stefan Denkhaus, Galeria's bankruptcy administrator, informed the creditors' meeting.
The contracts for the purchase of Galeria have not yet been signed, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper in business circles. Therefore, they should be signed on Tuesday. The final decision on the acquisition by a new owner will be made at the creditors' meeting in May.
Baker is said to be awarded the acquisition of Galeria
NRDC is the investment company of Canadian businessman Richard Baker, who also owns the majority of the department store company Hudson Bay Company (HBC). Baker had previously owned Kaufhof through HBC. In 2019 he sold the German department store subsidiary to René Benko's Signa group. Then Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhof merged.
According to Handelsblatt, the consortium that wants to acquire Galeria will also include the former chairman of the Kaufhof supervisory board, Bernd Beetz.
The Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store chain filed for bankruptcy in January. This is the company's third insolvency procedure. As of 2020, Galeria went through insolvency proceedings during the corona pandemic and received state aid. In 2022 it needed more state aid and in 2023 a second insolvency procedure was initiated. As a result of the financial problems of the owner, the Austrian group Signa, Galeria found itself in trouble again.
Galeria operates 92 department stores in Germany and claims to employ more than 15,000 people.
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