Reuters: Bankruptcy News: Germany's Praktiker appoints Macquarie in hunt for investor

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Germany's Praktiker appoints Macquarie in hunt for investor Jul 30th 2013, 14:56 FRANKFURT, July 30 | Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:56am EDT FRANKFURT, July 30 (Reuters) - The insolvency administrators of German DIY store chain Praktiker have stepped up the search for an investor by appointing Macquarie as advisor, they said on Tuesday. The administrators hope that by finding an investor they can secure as many jobs and stores as possible at the group, which has around 20,000 full and part-time employees. The group filed for insolvency earlier this month for the Praktiker-branded units, but spared its more successful Max Bahr chain. But prospects for the group took a nosedive last week when it announced it was also filing for insolvency for Max Bahr. Sources told Reuters last week there had already been interest from private equity. "Max Bahr, in particular, is an established brand that is working and there is also interest in Praktiker," the administrators said in a statement on Tuesday. They said they did not expect any results from the search before the start of September, but that all the 300 stores affected by the insolvency would continue trading for now. Praktiker, whose blue and yellow stores are a familiar sight in German out of town shopping centres, ran into difficulties after scrapping its popular "20 percent off everything" discounts. The long winter compounded its problems and forced it to file for insolvency earlier this month. Pay for the 14,000 of the group's employees affected by the insolvency has been secured until the end of September. A report over the weekend suggested 4,000 jobs could go and a dozen stores could soon be closed. The administrators said on Tuesday it was too early to provide information on individual stores. Of the 300 stores in the insolvency process, 168 are Praktiker stores, 78 are Max Bahr stores and a further 54 are Praktiker-branded shops that have recently been converted to the Max Bahr signage. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Louise Heavens) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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