BERLIN — In an 11th-hour move, private equity investment firm Triton put in a bid for the German Karstadt department group as the deadline for bidders neared its end on Friday.
It is the only offer received for the 120-door retail unit of the insolvent department store, catalogue and travel group Arcandor. Karstadt is comprised of 86 department stores, 26 sports stores and eight bargain centers employing 25,000.
A Triton spokesman confirmed the bid and told WWD the intention was to take over the entire group, which has long been a stumbling block in the bidding process. He added a restructuring concept came with the offer, but provided no details regarding either the takeover offer or further concessions from creditors and employees required by the new restructuring plan.
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Triton was not one of the six parties long said to be interested in taking over the Karstadt group. The American investment firms Apollo, Blackstone, Permira, Texas Pacific Group and Sun Capital and the British investment group Pamplona were widely believed to be in the running.
In the last few days, the U.S. bank Goldman Sachs had also surfaced as a possible last-minute bidder. Goldman Sachs is one of Karstadt’s largest creditors via its 51 percent interest in the real estate fund Highstreet, which in 2006 bought about two-thirds of the Karstadt store properties. As part of approved insolvency plan, Highstreet has had to accept reported rent cuts of 150 million euros, or $200.8 million at current exchange rates. The consortium’s leaseback rates, however, were way over the market norm, and considered one of the key financial factors catapulting Arcandor into insolvency last June.
Founded in 1998, the German-Scandinavian investment firm Triton has offices in Frankfurt, Stockholm and London. Its focus is on industrial, service and consumer goods companies, and has taken interests in 27 firms, many in Germany.