On September 30, 2015, Hudson’s Bay Company successfully completed the previously announced acquisition of GALERIA Holding, the parent company of Germany’s leading department store GALERIA Kaufhof and Belgium’s only department store, Galeria INNO, for an enterprise value of $3.8 billion. In conjunction with the closing, HBS Global Properties, HBC’s real estate joint venture with Simon Property Group, acquired 41 GALERIA properties in a transaction valued at $3.9 billion. With the acquisition, HBC has an international retail platform with over 460 locations across eight leading banners in four countries, and operates the leading department store banners in Canada, Germany, and Belgium, in addition to its iconic banners Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and Saks OFF 5TH in the US.
GALERIA Holding GmbH is a group of companies with a turnover of EUR 3.1 billion and 21,500 employees in fiscal year 2013/14.
HBC was led by David Pickwoad, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, and advised by M&A counsel Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP with a team led by Gordon Caplan, Gregory Astrachan (New York) and Georg Linde (Frankfurt).
Stikeman Elliott LLP was company counsel to HBC with a team led by Jonah Mann, Mihkel Voore (corporate), Jennifer Legge (banking), Dean Kraus (tax) and Douglas Klaassen (real estate).
GALERIA Holding was represented by Clifford Chance LLP with a team led by Dr. Christoph Holstein (corporate/M&A) in Düsseldorf.