Hudson's Bay Co. T.HBC

Excerpt from globe & Mail but no

[talladega10]

confirmation from HBC. If this story is true I doubt if retail shareholders will see any impact of the $1billion cash expected from the merger. ***Germanys two major department-store chains Galeria Kaufhof GmbH and Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH have agreed to merge, several sources close to the deal told Reuters on Thursday, in the latest changes to the retail sector brought by fierce competition from e-commerce players. Canadas Hudsons Bay Co., which bought Kaufhof in 2015, has agreed to a joint venture with Austrias Signa Holding GmbH, which owns Karstadt and will own 51 per cent in the new business, to be led by Karstadt boss Stephan Fanderl, the sources said. The two sides had confirmed in July that they were in talks for a deal when sources said Hudsons Bay was likely to receive close to 1-billion ($1.53-billion) for the transaction. Karstadt employs around 15,000 people. Cuts are expected at the headquarters of the two groups, as well as in logistics and sourcing, sources had told Reuters. The deal comes as booming online retail has undermined the business of many department stores. Britains House of Fraser group collapsed last month and was immediately bought from administrators by Sports Direct International PLC. Occupying prime locations in most major German cities, Kaufhof and Karstadt have fallen on hard times in the past decade, fuelling speculation the rival chains would be forced to merge. Kaufhof runs 96 stores and Karstadt has 80. Hudsons Bay had hoped to make Kaufhof the centrepiece of an expansion into Europe, but the company is battling its own losses and faced a campaign from activist investors to boost its share price by extracting value from its real estate holdings.