Arcandor AG
KarstadtQuelle AG: Department Store Real Estate Portfolio sold
Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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Ad hoc release under Section 15 Securities Trading Law
KarstadtQuelle AG: Department Store Real Estate Portfolio sold
Essen, March 27, 2006. KarstadtQuelle AG sold its department store real
estate portfolio to a joint company of Whitehall (51% of capital), a
property fund owned by US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and KarstadtQuelle
AG (49% of capital), effective March 27, 2006. The transaction is valued at
Euro 4.5bn. KarstadtQuelle AG, together with its pension fund, will receive
an immediate cash payment of Euro 3.7bn. The company expects an additional
Euro 0.8bn from the participation in the potential appreciation of these
real estate assets. Independent from this transaction, an additional Euro
0.6bn are expected to be realized over the coming months through the
commercialisation of further properties, such as office buildings, land and
others.
With this, the KarstadtQuelle Group management has successfully
accomplished the optimization of its real estate assets much earlier than
planned. An assessment of the various options – that was implemented
swiftly and supported by investment bank Rothschild – came to the
conclusion that the now chosen option provides an ideal structure and helps
to increase the total value of the Karstadt Quelle real estate portfolio to
approximately Euro 5.1bn.
The management of KarstadtQuelle believes that its department store real
estate property has a high value appreciation potential. In light of this,
the management decided to chose a strategic option that, on the one hand,
provides the inflow of cash through a sale and allows the complete
redemption of group financial liabilities and, on the other hand,
safeguards the further participation in the value appreciation of these
real estate assets.
As group financial liabilities will be completely eliminated, the company
achieves new flexibility for development and growth, based on a
substantially less capital-intensive business model. In addition to this,
the group achieves a significantly higher equity ratio. KarstadtQuelle will
also achieve a high extraordinary income in its financial year 2006 and
will benefit from a sustainable and significant improvement of its group
earnings.
The transaction is subject to approval of KarstadtQuelle AG’s
supervisory
board.
Essen, March 27, 2006
The Management Board
(c)DGAP 27.03.2006
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language: English
emitter: KARSTADT QUELLE AG
Theodor-Althoff-Straße 2
45133 Essen Deutschland
phone: +49 (0)201 727-9816
fax: +49 (0)201 727-9854
email: investors@karstadtquelle.com
WWW: www.karstadtquelle.com
ISIN: DE0006275001
WKN: 627500
indexes: MDAX
stockmarkets: Amtlicher Markt in Berlin-Bremen, Frankfurt (Prime Standard),
Hannover, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, München, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
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