Talks between the German supermarket chain Kaiser’s Tengelmann and its biggest competitors Edeka and Rewe about Edeka’s intention to acquire Tengelmann led to nothing once more, which means Tengelmann’s position has become far more problematic.
End in sight?
Tengelmann has been in the same position for several years. It decided to sell all of its stores to Edeka because of financial reasons, but the German Competitive Authority blocked the arrangement, a move the German government overruled. Competitor Rewe decided to take things to court in an attempt to block the deal, which worked.
On Thursday, Tengelmann, ReWe and Edeka sat down to try and find a solution for Tengelmann’s problematic conundrum and save as many stores and jobs as possible, but unfortunately for those involved, those talks led to nothing.
ReWe wants Tengelmann’s stores to go to a range of German supermarket companies, saving every one of the 15,000 jobs in the process, a demand from the German government for any deal to be approved. However, Tengelmann only wants to continue if the current company, in its current shape, can be maintained and its board is even willing to let the company go bankrupt if there is no solution in sight.
