The world-famous Berlin department store KaDeWe has filed for bankruptcy. Two other department stores are also affected. The trade association sees the move as an “opportunity to free yourself.”
The KaDeWe Group, to which the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) belongs, has filed for insolvency at the Charlottenburg District Court. The company said the court had already approved the application and appointed lawyer Christian Graf Brockdorff as interim administrator.
The KaDeWe Group now wants to secure its future through the self-administration process; the department stores will remain open. In addition to the Berlin KaDeWe, the Alterhaus in Hamburg and the Oberpollinger in Munich are also affected by the insolvency.
“Exorbitantly high rents”
The background to the application is “exorbitantly high rents” for the department store properties. These made “sustainably profitable economic activity almost impossible”. That should change. “I am very confident that together with the management we will be able to continue the group successfully,” said administrator Brockdorff.
“All stores record high sales even in difficult economic times,” said managing director Michael Peterseim. However, the index rents are disproportionately high and are expected to continue to rise. “There is no question that the group can have a strong future with normal rents,” said Peterseim.
First Galeria, then KaDeWe
The Signa Group of the Austrian investor Rene Benko holds 49.9 percent of the shares in the KaDeWe Group, while the Central Group from Thailand, which specializes in trading, holds 50.1 percent. According to the information, the department store properties in prime city center locations belong to Signa.
Signa Holding and its two largest subsidiaries also filed for bankruptcy in November 2023. The Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof chain, which has gone bankrupt several times, is also one of them. High construction costs, rising loan interest rates and internal problems had caused the trading and real estate group to falter.
Trade association sees positive future
The general manager of the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association, Nils Busch-Petersen, is nevertheless confident that the department store has a future. “KaDeWe is doing great. And the bankruptcy means more of an effort to get out of contractual relationships that are toxic,” he told the rbb.
In Germany, people have to get out of the habit of always referring to an insolvency as a bankruptcy, says Busch-Petersen. Bankruptcy has nothing to do with the end of a company, but rather means “an opportunity to free yourself.”
“The KaDeWe has recently undergone a lot of renovation, not only structurally but also in terms of content, has a great team of employees and a very successful management. There will certainly not be just one interested party,” said Busch-Petersen.