Signa marketing portfolio of 16 ex-Kaufhof stores

Signa Group is putting a large portfolio of ex-Kaufhof department stores on the market, according to a report in the trade journal Lebensmittel Zeitung. The D-18 portfolio, after some disposals, now contains less than 18 properties is scheduled to be sold by 2025, according to the report.

The likely 16 properties in the current investor prospectus are currently valued at €388m, but with Signa's own development plans the gross development value could be as high as €1.5bn.

There is uncertainty about these figures, however; Fitch last year rated a bond issued by Signa Development Selection by imputing a value of €400 on the full 18 properties, and suggested the Signa valuation assumptions were overly optimistic. It described the portfolio as having "minimal rental income along with long-term leases."

Signa, headed by Austrian Wunderkind René Benko, gained the properties when it bought half the shares in department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof from the Canadian group Hudson's Bay Company in 2019. The package includes assets in Freiburg, Kassel, Munich, Münster, Saarbrücken and Hannover, among others.