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Reuters
Published
Apr 5, 2010
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Metro talks to investors who also eyeing Karstadt

By
Reuters
Published
Apr 5, 2010

FRANKFURT, April 3 (Reuters) - Metro (MEOG.DE), which is planning to sell its department store chain Kaufhof, is talking to potential investors who are also interested in local rival Karstadt, but is not in concrete negotiations, a newspaper said.


Photo: www.metro-cc.com

German department store chain Karstadt was part of the Arcandor (AROG.DE) retail group, which went insolvent last year amid refinancing difficulties. Karstadt's insolvency administrator plans to sell the chain by the end of April.

Metro has been planning to sell its Kaufhof chain for years and sources told Reuters last month that some financial investors were interested in merging Kaufhof and Karstadt to create a "German Department Store Inc".

Metro's Chief Financial Officer Olaf Koch told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday 3 April that Metro was talking to investors with such plans from time to time, but that Metro was not in concrete negotiations to sell Kaufhof.

"We will sell Kaufhof when a sensible opportunity arises," he told Boersen-Zeitung.

He emphasised that Metro was still interested in some, but not all Karstadt stores, which was why it was excluded from the bidding process for Karstadt.

Karstadt's insolvency plan says that the chain can only be sold as a whole. A Karstadt creditors' meeting is set for April 12 and a source said that final bids are due shortly after.

For analysis of scenarios for Karstadt's future, double click on

(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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