German department store group's existence threatened

The Corona crisis is also affecting major market players. Investor and billionaire René Benko, which acquired the Swiss department store chain Globus together with the Central Group from Bangkok at the beginning of February, has to worry about its department store group Galerie Kaufhof and Karstadt in Germany and according to media reports is already negotiating with the German government about aid money.

The company, like the bulk of the retail trade, is affected by the closure of stores. A few days ago, the approximately 30,000 employees of GKK Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof received a letter from their managing director - the company was "existentially threatened" and therefore had to withhold 15% of March salaries; furthermore, they had applied for short-time work. These measures do not seem to be enough: According to an internal paper, there are currently "ongoing talks with banks in order to meet the extensive conditions necessary to receive state aid".

As the Austrian daily newspaper Courier reports, the parent company Signa Holding (profits 2018: 1 billion euros, liquidity reserves until the end of 2019: around 1.2 billion euros), which is owned by René Benko (private assets: around 4.1 billion euros), is ready to help out with money, but this is apparently not enough. The department store group's otherwise weekly income of 80 million euros will be lost during the crisis, while at the same time "substantial costs" will be continuously incurred. As the German Manager Magazine reports, the Galeria Kaufhof Karstadt Group needs "hundreds of millions" to overcome the crisis. (bw)