Who are the likely buyers of Galeria?

The US entrepreneur Richard Baker, together with the German businessman Bernd Beetz, is supposed to save the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof chain from its third bankruptcy. Who are the two investors?

Berggruen, Benko, Baker, Beetz – apart from the big B, the key investors in the recent eventful history of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof have little in common.

Unlike their predecessors, the entrepreneurs Richard Baker (58) and Bernd Beetz (73), who are now expected to take over, can point to decades of operational experience in the retail industry as well as in-depth knowledge of the German department store group. According to consistent media reports, a consortium of the two businessmen will be awarded the contract for the insolvent department store chain.

Baker, who comes from the US state of Connecticut, started working for the National Realty and Development Corp. early on. (NRDC) of his father gained experience in the development of shopping centers and the takeover of department stores. In 2008, under his leadership, NRDC acquired the long-established Canadian retail chain Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which became the centerpiece of its portfolio alongside Saks Fifth Avenue.

The first Galeria engagement was a failure

In 2015, Baker finally bought Galeria Kaufhof, the largest German department store chain at the time, through HBC. In 2018 and in a second step in 2019, HBC passed the chain on to René Benko’s Signa Group, who ultimately merged the department store groups to form Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.

Baker had already demonstrated the Austrian’s now much-maligned approach of renting out some locations held by Signa to Galeria at a comparatively high price with a similar construct by renting out HBC-owned properties. In any case, the American was unable to stop the decline of German department stores with this idea.

Beetz has been successful with Coty for years

Now Baker should do better – this time together with the German entrepreneur and investor Bernd Beetz. Beetz also has a high level of industry expertise. The trade manager from Mannheim headed the US cosmetics group Coty, a holding of the German Reimann family, from 2001 to 2012. Under his aegis, Coty grew strongly and expanded worldwide.

In addition to his supervisory board position at Douglas Holding, Beetz also headed Kaufhof’s supervisory board for a few months in 2018 and 2019. The ultimately unsuccessful merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof fell into this phase.

There are 12,800 employees

Beetz, who lives in Switzerland, is best known as the most important investor and president of SV Waldhof Mannheim since 2018. Under his leadership, the club achieved promotion to the third division in 2019 and returned to professional football.

The two entrepreneurs and major investors certainly do not lack strategic visions. Whether they can offer a future to the remaining 92 branches of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof and their approximately 12,800 employees remains to be seen.