Essen, Germany - German retail group Arcandor, which has struggled with weak sales at its department stores, is to join a luxury retail venture with Italian major La Rinascente and Printemps of France, it said Wednesday. Arcandor, the group behind the German store chain Karstadt, said at its offices in Essen that the three department-store companies had agreed to a cross-shareholding deal.
At the same time, Arcandor is sell the remaining freeholds of its store properties to a consortium comprising Italian companies Pirelli Real Estate and Borletti Group and a Deutsche Bank subsidiary, RREEF.
