Clifford Chance advised METRO GROUP on the sale of GALERIA Kaufhof to Hudson's Bay Company.

The volume of the transaction amounts to EUR 2.825 billion including several liabilities. The transaction was approved by the supervisory board of METRO AG and closing is scheduled for the end of September 2015.

Hudson's Bay Company takes over 103 GALERIA Kaufhof chain stores in Germany from METRO GROUP, 59 of which are high-street properties owned by Kaufhof company GALERIA Real Estate. The transaction also includes 16 Sportarena stores as well as 16 stores of the subsidiary GALERIA Inno in Belgium. In addition to several logistics centres, warehouses and other real property, Hudson's Bay Company will also take on the headquarters of GALERIA Kaufhof in Cologne.

GALERIA Holding GmbH is a group of companies with a turnover of EUR 3.1 billion and 21,500 employees (financial year 2013/2014).

METRO GROUP is a major international trading group with a turnover of EUR 63 billion in the 2013/14 financial year. The group operates in 2,200 locations in 30 countries and has approximately 250,000 employees. METRO GROUP's sales brands operate independently: METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry, Media Markt and Saturn (consumer electronics), Real hypermarkets as well as GALERIA Kaufhof (department stores).

Hudson's Bay Company is the longest operating company in North America. Leading brands of Hudson's Bay Company are Hudson's Bay, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5th.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Dr. Christoph Holstein (Corporate/M&A) and included partners Reinhard Scheer-Hennings (Real Estate), Dr. Florian Mahler (Banking & Capital Markets), Thomas Hey (Corporate/Employment), Marc Besen (Corporate/Antitrust) – all Düsseldorf – and Dr. Uwe Schimmelschmidt (Tax, Frankfurt), counsels Dr. Moritz Pöschke (Corporate/M&A) and Cord von Mandelsloh (Tax) as well as senior associates Dr. Werner Brickwedde (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Dimitri Slobodenjuk (Corporate/Antitrust), associate Philipp Schott (Real Estate) - all Düsseldorf – and transaction lawyers Katrin Rötering (Real Estate, Düsseldorf) and Carina Soesanto (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt).