NautaDutilh assisted SIGNA Group on the formation of a joint venture with Canadian Hudson's Bay Company
NautaDutilh, together with McDermott Will & Emery, succesfully advised Austrian SIGNA Group on the formation of a joint venture with Canadian Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) to merge retail chains Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt Warenhaus. SIGNA also acquired 50 percent of HBS´c European real estate portfolio. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.
SIGNA and HBC intend to form a new retail company which will, amongst others, include Galeria Kaufhof GmbH, Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH and HBC’s European retail business. HBC's European retail business includes Hudson’s Bay in the Netherlands, Saks OFF 5TH in Germany and the Netherlands as well as Belgium's only department store group Galeria INNO. In addition, the e-commerce businesses of both retail chains will merge. The new company will have 241 large city-center locations in Europe and employ a total of 32,000 staff.
SIGNA Retail will hold 50.01 percent of the shares of the new holding company and HBC will hold the remaining 49.99 percent. Click here for the publication on the Signa website.
NautaDutilh's corporate team was led by Martin Grablowitz and included Kathrin Bungenberg and Jeanine Evertse (Corporate M&A).
The Dutch due diligence team included Sascha Allertz (Corporate M&A), Jorieke van Strijen, Boris Andriessen (Real Estate), Edward Rijnhout, Sjuul Jentjens, Simone Wijngaard and Alissia Sudibyo (Tax). The Belgian due diligence team included Maxime Colle, Elke Janssens, Louisa Vandepitte, Yolanda Hebbrecht (Corporate M&A), Aurélie Dupuis, Harry Eliaerts (Real Estate), Francois Philippe, Amaury Mechelynck (Employment), Ken Lioen and Stefanie Hardy (Tax).
