The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor will buy the German chain Galeria Kaufhof for $3.2 billion. Galeria Kaufhof is a power play for The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which was founded in 1670. (That’s not a typo.) It will seek to put its “proven growth formula in action.” The Canadian company will get 103 Galeria Kaufhof stores in Germany, according to the release, “including 59 properties in prime inner-city locations that are part of the Galeria Real Estate portfolio.” It will also receive critical logistics centers.
In addition HBC will get 16 Galeria stores in Belgium, 16 Sportarena stores in Germany. HBC calls Galeria “the #1 department store in Germany.” The seller is Metro Group, headed by Olaf Koch. Galeria has more than 21,000 employees.
