FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (April 9): A consortium including Hudson's Bay Company CEO Richard Baker's investment firm NRDC Corp is set to take over German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Galeria, Germany's most prominent retailer, earlier this year filed for insolvency following the collapse of its parent Signa, the Austria-based property empire that has become the biggest casualty so far in Europe's real-estate crisis.

Baker's Hudson's Bay Company had owned Galeria Kaufhof for several years before a sale to Signa and the chain's merger with Karstadt.

An announcement of the deal could come as soon as Wednesday, the people said.

NRDC and German businessman Bernd Beetz, former head of cosmetics company Coty and a former supervisory board chairman at Galeria, will lead the consortium, the people said.

Reuters was unable to immediately contact Bernd Beetz. NRDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of business hours.

A spokesperson for Galeria's insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus declined to comment. Last month, Denkhaus had said he was in talks with two bidders.

Galeria's latest insolvency filing is its third in recent years. The pandemic pushed it to file in 2020, and soaring inflation and energy costs in the wake of the Ukraine war hit it again in 2022.

This time, Galeria's troubles stemmed from the collapse of its owner Signa, which had committed to providing Galeria with €200 million , a payment that became unlikely in light of its troubles.

Germany's Handelsblatt business daily first reported that NRDC would win the bid.
 

  - Reuters