Combination of the two largest German department stores

Two of the largest German department store chains, Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhof, are merging. The purpose of the merge is to strengthen the chains’ position in the competition against e-commerce and giants such as Amazon. The deal will result in almost an equal split of the shares, where Austria’s biggest property firm Signa Holding, which owns Karstadt, will own 50.01% of the new business, and Hudson’s Bay, the Canadian retailer behind Galeria Kaufhof, will own the rest.

Two iconic