Germany’s last major department store chain gets a lifeline

Germany’s only remaining major department store chain is set to get new owners after its third spell in bankruptcy in four years, and the company aims to keep most of its stores open, its insolvency administrator said Wednesday. Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is to be taken over by a consortium of US private equity firm NRDC Equity Partners, which currently has investments in Hudson’s Bay of Canada and Saks Fifth Avenue among others, and German businessman Bernd Beetz’s BB Kapital SA.