2024-04-13 13:42:35
The first reports had already been made on Thursday, now it is official: The Thai Central Group is taking over the luxury department store KaDeWe.
The property of the Berlin luxury department store KaDeWe now belongs entirely to the Thai Central Group. The previous owner, the insolvent Signa Prime Selection, and the group had reached an agreement for the complete acquisition, Central announced on Friday. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported on it. Here you can read more about it.
Among retail experts, the Thai group of companies is also one of the candidates for the complete takeover of the KaDeWe Group, i.e. the actual department store business in the renowned property on Tauentzienstrasse. So far, Central holds 50.1 percent of it, 49.9 percent belongs to the troubled Signa Group of the Austrian businessman René Benko.
“Illustrates our family’s commitment to KaDeWe Group”
“We are pleased to add KaDeWe Berlin to our portfolio of traditional flagship luxury properties. The additional capital investment demonstrates our family’s commitment to KaDeWe Group and our loyal customers, employees and business partners in Europe,” said Central Managing Director Tos Chirathivat of the message. “We will continue to work with everyone involved to find the best possible solution so that our department stores can resume normal operations – better and stronger than before and as quickly as possible.”
According to the statement, the Central Group remains “in discussions with the management of the KaDeWe Group and the creditors and is confident that, as the new owner of the Berlin property, it will be able to reach an agreement on the acquisition of further assets and thus initiate an orderly exit from the insolvency proceedings.”
In addition to the KaDeWe in Berlin, the KaDeWe group also includes the Oberpollinger in Munich and the Alsterhaus in Hamburg. At the end of January, the group filed for bankruptcy under self-administration. Business operations continue.
60,000 square meters of shopping space in the middle of the capital
The “Department Store of the West” is significantly older than the Cold War that its name sounds like. It was opened on March 27, 1907 – in what was then an upper-middle-class residential area away from the shopping mile at Potsdamer Platz. In 1927, founder Adolf Jandorf sold to the Jewish merchant family Hermann Tietz. During the Nazi era, the owners were forced out of the management, and in 1933 the department store group “Hertie” was created from the name of the merchant family.
In 1943, an American plane crashed into the KaDeWe and the building was in ruins. The new beginning came in 1950; during the Adenauer era, the department store became a symbol of consumption and purchasing power. On the occasion of the 100th birthday celebration in March 2007, the Berliners stormed the house and picked up pieces of a 6.50 meter high giant cake.
The KaDeWe has 60,000 square meters of shopping space in the middle of the capital – that’s about eight football fields with high-quality clothes, shoes, handbags and delicatessen. In addition to fans of luxury goods, thousands of tourists also make their way to the renowned building every day. The department store was most recently renovated over the years from 2016 at a cost of tens of millions of euros. The Galeries Lafayette are leaving Berlin in the summer – this means that KaDeWe will have one less luxury competitor in the capital in the future.