Rene Benko is being reported as having sold 17 Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof stores for €700m according to credible sources to a fund that’s managed by Apollo Global. Bloomberg reports that the alleged buyer has already applied for antitrust approval for the deal. It’s unclear which of the chain’s 240 locations are included in the deal or what it would mean for the company’s 28,000 employees. Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof recently sought the legal cover of a protective shield procedure which would keep it out of the reach of its creditors without necessitating it filing for bankruptcy. Benko is now claiming to have never wanted the protective shield to be implemented and that he is in fact one of the victims of the process.
