Signa: German KaDeWe Group and Lamarr are said to be on the verge of bankruptcy

The application should be submitted this week, writes the “Handelsblatt” on Monday. The German business magazine “Capital” was the first to report on it. Important locations of the KaDeWe Group are the department store of the same name in Berlin, the Oberpollinger in Munich and the Alsterhaus in Hamburg. The KaDeWe Group owns 49.9 percent of Signa, the remaining 50.1 percent belongs to the Thai Central Group. The umbrella company is Signa Retail Selection, which is based in Switzerland and which also includes the already insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.

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High rents as a possible reason

One reason for the possible impending insolvency could be the high rents, writes the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on Monday. “According to a report in the Handelsblatt from December, the annual rent in Oberpollinger amounts to 20 percent of sales, in Alsterhaus it is 17 percent and in KaDeWe it is 13 percent,” the report says. Rents of up to 12 percent are common on the market. The group recently achieved sales of 800 million euros.

According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, around 1,900 employees would be affected by the insolvency of the KaDeWe Group. The future of the Lamarr department store in Vienna would then also be in jeopardy. Several weeks ago, the district head of Vienna Neubau called on the city of Vienna to take action so that the Lamarr did not degenerate into a ruin. Shortly afterwards, the city of Vienna said that the building was expected to be completed.

• More on this: Will Upper Austria’s banks soon own the Viennese luxury department store Lamarr? (OÖNplus)

Spar CEO signals interest in Lamarr

There is already someone interested in the Lamarr. Spar CEO Hans Reisch was interested in an interview with the “Salzburger Nachrichten” at the weekend. “We tried very hard to get the Hedy Lamarr – the Leiner on Mariahilfer Strasse back then – before we sold it to René Benko, but we didn’t get the chance,” said Reisch. “That would still be an asset that we would be interested in. But nothing is concrete.”

Signa Holding is once again in focus in Vienna today. The audit meeting for the Signa umbrella company will take place at lunchtime on Monday at the commercial court.