Overview
Düsseldorf, 5 February 2020 – The Austrian SIGNA Group together with the Thai Harng Central Department Store Group/Central Retail Corporation has agreed to take over the Swiss Magazine zum Globus AG in a newly founded joint venture from Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund. The acquisition also includes a portfolio of Globus properties in several cities in Switzerland. McDermott acted on behalf of SIGNA and the new joint venture as lead counsel in the areas of corporate/M&A, real estate and antitrust, and also on negotiating the joint venture.
Magazine zum Globus AG is the largest department store chain in Switzerland with 50 stores and a turnover of 763 million Swiss francs in 2019.
SIGNA and Central already have a joint venture in The KaDeWe Group with luxury department stores in Berlin (KaDeWe), Hamburg (Alsterhaus) and Munich (Oberpollinger), and soon also in Düsseldorf and Vienna. Central is active in Europe near Rinascente, Italy, and Illum in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Since 2011, under the lead of real estate partner Jens Ortmanns McDermott has regularly advised the SIGNA Group on activities in Germany, and increasingly abroad, most recently on the acquisition of the Chrysler Building in New York. The real estate team led by Jens Ortmanns had already advised SIGNA on the acquisition of the luxury department stores KaDeWe, Alsterhaus and Oberpollinger. In December 2019 McDermott advised SIGNA in connection with the SIGNA/Central joint venture regarding the Düsseldorf Carschhaus, where a luxury department store will also be developed as part of the KaDeWe Group. In January, the corporate merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof to form GALERIA Karstadt Kaufhof was completed, also advised by McDermott.
The McDermott was led by Philipp Grenzebach and included Jens Ortmanns, Gregor Lamla, Matthias Kampshoff, Christian Krohs, David Henry, Lisa-Marie Flecke, Sakai Shabo, Max Küttner, and Carina Kant.
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