KaDeWe Has Been Handed to a New Owner
The Famous Berlin Shopping Mall Goes to the Far East
April 19th, 2016The luxury department store: KaDeWe goes to the Far East. Indeed, the Karstadt owner Benko has sold the KaDeWe luxury department stores. The majority is now held by a Thai group.
Austrian investor and Karstadt owner Rene Benko sold the majority of KaDeWe Group to the Thai Central Group. Its subsidiary, the traditional Italian department store La Rinascente companies, take over a little more than half of the operating business of the three luxury buildings.
49.9 percent of the KaDeWe’s share remains at Signa Holding GmbH. For all the major strategic decisions the principle of unanimity has been agreed.
La Rinascente operates 11 stores throughout Italy and generates along with the acquired in 2013 Danish department store chain Illum with 1,600 employees, around 600 million euros’ income. In the KaDeWe Group the former Karstadt luxury locations KaDeWe in Berlin, Alster in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich are all included.
After the Karstadt takeover, Rene Benko is in a bidding race with the North American trading group Hudson's Bay.
News from Berlin
Adam Slezak, Berlin Global