A consortium made up of the US investment company NRDC Equity Partners and the entrepreneur Bernd Beetz wants to take over the insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof. The German Press Agency learned this from negotiating circles. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported.
Neither the spokesman for the insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus nor a spokesman for the company wanted to comment on this when asked.
The administrator of Galeria had recently finalized negotiations with two bidders about the sale. According to the report, Denkhaus is said to have informed the creditors’ committee on Monday that NRDC and Beetz should be awarded the contract. The contracts are due to be signed today. Denkhaus wants to present the buyer publicly on Wednesday. The creditors’ meeting will make a final decision on the takeover in May.
NRDC is owned by Canadian entrepreneur Richard Baker. The 58-year-old also has a majority stake in the department store companies Hudson Bay Company (HBC) and Saks Fifth Avenue. Through HBC, he was the owner of Galeria Kaufhof between 2015 and 2019 before the department store chain was sold to the Signa Group and merged with Karstadt.
Beetz is president of the third division soccer team SV Waldhof Mannheim. From 2018 to 2019 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Kaufhof.