Kaufhof

"Stefan Persson takes a different role during the establishment. While Erling Persson is on site once a month, Stefan Persson visits Germany at most once a quarter, when the German manager Edgar Rosenberg has interesting new store locations to show in the major cities. At this time, Stefan Persson focuses on finding the best store locations and then he puts all his energy into negotiating with property owners who are not familiar with H&M before. They have big dragons to fight, Dutch C&A and department stores like Karlstadt and Kaufhof. When the CEO of H&M himself comes down to negotiate a new store, it gives a completely different weight. Erling Persson makes his spontaneous visits, and combines them with sauna bathing. Stefan Persson always has an agenda."

"However, the decisive argument is monetary: Berggruen has been able to win over Blackstone as a partner. The Metro Group is seeking roughly two billion euros for its Kaufhof chain – an entirely different price range compared to Karstadt."

"In 2011, Benko, an avid skier, bought a dilapidated hotel in the winter sports resort of Oberlech and transformed the area into "Chalet N," affectionately named after the initial of his wife's name. Theoretically, the house can be rented for 350,000 euros a week, but in practice, Benko mainly uses it himself during the winter. His family spends several weeks there every year, and he often invites business partners or employees for strategy meetings. Thus, they gather in a larger group before the merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof to consider the next steps."

"And Benko served the fantasy of ever higher, further, better with new acquisitions. Thus, he transformed the real estate company Signa, which only invested in prime locations in core Europe, into a conglomerate of real estate, trade and media, and also a bit of digital business. From a business in which he was more knowledgeable than anyone else, it becomes an increasingly complex conglomerate. In 2013, Benko entered the German department store business with the purchase of Karstadt, more of an opportunity than a long-planned venture. Five years later, he also secured the acquisition of Kaufhof after a long attempt. With the idea of merging into the German Department Store AG with high synergies, he attracts fresh investors. Among them is Roland Berger, who invests in the still-young retail division, but also in the two main Signa companies, Prime and Development."

"The gallery in Cologne obviously has a considerable backlog of investment. Normally, defects such as a pieced-together floor or scarcely usable spaces lead to opportunities for rent reductions. Not so with Galeria. For the building on Hohe Straße, the landlord called for around 19 million euros per year, which corresponds to about 30 percent of sales. The market standard is 6 to 10 percent. Who was so greedy? The Galeria parent, Signa. "I don't want to mention figures," says the head of Cologne's Kaufhof, Harry Benzrath, to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger at the end of 2023: "But let me put it this way: (…) Rents significantly above what all retail experts known to me describe as too high, are a huge burden on the business. Hohe Straße is not the same as the Champs-Élysées in Paris.""

""We have of course been following the reporting over the past years and have repeatedly asked ourselves how comfortable we feel with Signa," a board member of Signal Iduna tells in the autumn of 2023. In the end, the managers calm themselves down, saying that they have very little subordinated capital, very few profit participation certificates. Most of it is in mortgages and in a few senior bonds, he explains. It has always been important for Signal Iduna to be engaged in the prestigious locations and thus be properly secured. At the end of the day, the argument in case something went wrong was: then you would own the Alsterhaus in Hamburg, the Oberpollinger in Munich, the Elbtower in Hamburg and the Kaufhof in Hohen Straße in Cologne."

"In Munich, Stavros Kostantinidis schedules appointments for the Austrian concrete block. An influential lawyer, not least because of his wife. Saskia Greipl-Kostantinidis is the daughter of the deceased, long-standing president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Munich and Upper Bavaria. Erich Greipl was part of the management of Metro, later he sat on its supervisory board as well as on the controlling committee of Kaufhof. When the Greipl-Kostantinidis family invites, such as to the wife’s 50th birthday, the Munich kissing-kissing society appears. But above all, people of weight and importance come, from the president of the state parliament, Ilse Aigner, to the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder. René was occasionally invited to dinner by the Prime Minister, then he dined with Söder at the table, an ex-Signa manager recounts."

"In 2013, Benko entered the German department store business with the purchase of Karstadt, more of an opportunity than a long-planned venture. Five years later, he also secured the acquisition of Kaufhof after a long attempt."