Goldman Considers Karstadt Takeover

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is considering a takeover of the remains of insolvent German department store chain Karstadt if no other investor emerges, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Goldman Sachs as well as Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) are part of the Highstreet consortium, which owns about two-thirds of Karstadt’s store space.

“Is increasingly looking like Highstreet is keeping this option open as a last resort,” one of the sources said on Wednesday. Goldman would look for a co-investor if it decided to bid for Karstadt, another source said.

German daily Die Welt earlier cited a Goldman manager as saying that the investment bank was seriously considering a bid, but that no decision had been made yet.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Another source close to the insolvency administrator Klaus-Hubert Goerg said that Goerg expected at least one bid for Karstadt by Friday — the deadline for potential Karstadt bids.

Karstadt was part of the German retail and tourism group Arcandor, which filed for insolvency in June after running into refinancing problems and failing to secure state aid.

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner; writing by Eva Kuehnen)