The owner of Germany’s best-known luxury department stores, Oberpollinger in Munich and Alsterhaus in Hamburg, has signed new leases for both properties, sources familiar with the matter told dpa on Friday.
According to the KaDeWe Group, owner of both stores, the lease agreements concluded with the receiver for the former owner of the buildings will ensure that both stores can remain open and operational.
Store employees were informed of the offers on Friday morning, dpa has learned.
The agreement also involves around 40 redundancies, which will mainly affect the administration of the KaDeWe Group, but also the stores themselves. The company has a total of around 1,300 employees.
The KaDeWe Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment from dpa on Friday.
Thai retail and hospitality giant Central Group took direct control of the operations of the three luxury department stores in June. Central Group already held a 50.1% stake in KaDeWe Group.
The remaining interest in the stores, and also in the buildings themselves, belonged to the bankrupt Signa empire of the controversial Austrian real estate magnate René Benko.
In January, the KaDeWe Group filed for bankruptcy, although business operations in the department stores continued.
Berlin’s iconic Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) department store, which is also owned by the same company, is not affected by the deal. According to the Berlin government, the Central Group took control of the KaDeWe building in April for €1 billion ($1.1 billion).
