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It is a company from Thailand that has the major European shopping addresses in its portfolio: KaDeWe in Berlin, Selfridges in London and La Rinascente in Milan. Luxury brands line up here, everything sparkles, and there are gourmet kitchens at the top, at least in the German houses. The owner family themselves, the Chirathivats, can probably afford this luxury program best. They are one of the richest families in Asia and began investing in European luxury department stores with their company, Central Group, more than ten years ago.
In the wake of the insolvency of the KaDeWe Group, about which Capital had exclusively reported, the family could now expand its shares again. The Central Group already holds the majority of 50.1 percent of the shares in the KaDeWe Group, which, in addition to KaDeWe, also includes the Oberpollinger in Munich and the Alsterhaus in Hamburg. The remaining 49.9 percent of the shares are owned by the Signa Group of the Austrian entrepreneur René Benko. To date, he is the Thais’ most important European partner.
In November, Central Group said it would “ensure” that luxury department stores in Europe “receive the necessary support to continue operating as usual.” Recently, however, the relationship between Benko and “the Thais,” as they are called internally at Signa, was severely disrupted. As Insider Capital reported, Benko’s partners from Thailand were completely taken by surprise by the bankruptcy filings of the real estate companies behind Alsterhaus and Oberpollinger and felt duped. Members of the Chirathivat family are said to have complained that they had never been treated like this in the company’s 100-year history.
The family could still take advantage of the insolvency – by finally taking over the KaDeWe Group’s trading business completely and thus continuing its expansion in Europe. It would also be an opportunity for the Chirathivats to negotiate better conditions and, among other things, reduce the rent burden for the department stores. These have literally “exploded” since joining the KaDeWe Group in 2015, it says there.
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