The department store chain recently filed for bankruptcy again. The company is looking for new owners. Discussions with potential investors have already begun.
According to media reports, representatives of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK) are holding talks with the US cosmetics group Coty and entrepreneurs from its environment about a possible takeover of branches. Galeria’s provisional insolvency administrator, Stefan Denkhaus, did not want to confirm this on Wednesday.
“There are more than two interested parties. We can’t say anything more about it at this point,” he told the German Press Agency. When asked, a Coty spokeswoman said: “We cannot confirm this.”
Is Coty taking over Galeria locations?
According to the news platform Business Insider, the US perfume and cosmetics group wants to take over around 60 Galeria branches. As the Bild newspaper reports, entrepreneur Bernd Beetz, former Coty boss and ex-supervisory board member of GKK, is interested in buying the ailing department store group. For the financing, he wants to bring the Reimann family of entrepreneurs on board, which holds the majority of Coty through its holding company JAB. A spokeswoman for the Reimann family denied the plans, according to Bild. Beetz could not be reached for comment.
Insolvency administrator Denkhaus emphasized that they do not comment on market speculation. According to him, the creditors’ committee will discuss the structured investor process this week, and negotiations will then begin “quickly”.
Galeria filed for insolvency at the Essen district court last week. It is the third bankruptcy within three and a half years. The company is looking for new owners. According to Galeria boss Olivier van den Bossche, the goal is to preserve the company as a whole. In order to be able to maintain the advantages of a nationwide department store group, a minimum number of locations must be maintained.
“30 houses, as is occasionally reported, is far too few for that. This means we can no longer benefit from economies of scale, for example in negotiations with suppliers,” says van den Bossche. With more than 60 branches you are already profitable.
When it comes to possible investors, the names of two companies have recently been mentioned more frequently. One of these is the Central Group, which has a stake in various luxury department stores such as Berlin’s KaDeWe. A request to the Thai trading company remained unanswered. The Droege Group, with which there are also said to have been discussions, recently said: “We are continuously monitoring the market, including the current developments at GKK. Beyond that, there are no concrete plans.”(dpa)