Now the luxury department store operator KaDeWe Group is also said to be facing bankruptcy.
The group behind the department stores KaDeWe in Berlin, Oberpollinger in Munich and Alsterhaus in Hamburg is expected to file for insolvency at the beginning of next week, reports the business magazine Capital, which cites the corporate crisis.
At the end of November, Michael Peterseim, managing director of the KaDeWe Group, reacted calmly to the insolvency of Signa Holding. The group is securely positioned and Signa is only a minority shareholder and is not involved in strategic and operational issues.
However, the first effects on the KaDeWe Group had already occurred before the first company in the Signa Group filed for bankruptcy. The construction work on the new locations in Düsseldorf and Vienna was stopped after payments from Signa were reported to have failed.
The insolvent Austrian trading group holds 49.9 percent of the KaDeWe Group. The majority, with the remaining 50.1 percent, lies with the Thai Central Group, which is also said to be interested in the Signa Group’s shares and could pay less for them if the KaDeWe Group went bankrupt.
At the end of last year, Central Group took control of the luxury department store operator Selfridges Group, which it previously shared 50 percent with Signa.
The KaDeWe Group has not yet responded to a request from FashionUnited.