The Max Noble 5 Minute Study · No. 0015
The Morning Brief Edition · The accounts: rent ÷ sales
The rent before the shirt
Galeria has filed for insolvency four times in six years. One ratio shows where to look first in its 83 department stores: rent divided by sales.
Tool: The accounts: rent ÷ sales · ready for class, with a teacher pack
By Max Noble · 4 November 2026 · 5 min read
The idea
Wismar, 14 May 1881. Rudolph Karstadt opens a cloth shop with 1,000 thaler lent by his father, and makes one rule: sell for cash, at low prices.
In a town used to credit and barter, that was a small revolution.
On 2 October 2026 Galeria, the department-store chain that long carried his name as Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, filed for insolvency for the fourth time in six years. This study shows you in five minutes why a chain that keeps being rescued keeps needing a rescue, and the first ratio to read for each of its stores.
The company
Everything under one roof
Galeria runs 83 department stores in German city centres, with about 12,000 staff.
Until 2024 the Signa property group held most of it, and Signa Prime, part of the same group, owned 18 of its store buildings.
Since the summer of 2024 it has belonged to the investment firm NRDC Equity Partners and BB Kapital SA, a company linked to Bernd Beetz.
The promise
“Invest, develop, and grow”
When the new owners agreed to buy Galeria out of its third insolvency, in April 2024, Bernd Beetz made the promise:
“We believe in the future of Galeria, and we have only one focus: invest, develop, and grow the department stores.”
In January 2025 he told Handelsblatt that all 83 stores were in the black, for the first time in about ten years.
As the fourth filing went in, in October 2026, its managing directors wrote to staff, dpa reported: “We are convinced that Galeria will have a successful future.”
Confidence costs nothing. The rent does.
The moment
Four filings in six years
The first filing came in 2020, when Covid shut the stores. The second came in autumn 2022, the third in January 2024.
The German state had lent and invested €680 million (about DKK 5.1 billion) in 2021 and 2022 through its stabilisation fund. The fund wrote off its €250 million stake (about DKK 1.9 billion) in full after the 2022 filing.
In 2024 creditors claimed about €886 million (about DKK 6.6 billion) and expected to get back about 2.5 to 3 cents of every euro.
Then 2026. In April landlords reported missed rent. In June the investor Gordon Brothers lent up to €160 million (about DKK 1.2 billion) against the goods on its shelves. In July 33 stores were put under review, with the rent burden named as one test.
On 5 October the Düsseldorf court ordered provisional proceedings and named Frank Kebekus provisional administrator. On 20 October a new loan from Gordon Brothers kept goods flowing to the stores.
“That in the end probably not all 83 locations can continue, that will probably be the case,” Kebekus said. The consultancy Roland Berger is looking for a buyer, with candidates due in early January.
The moment, in one chart
Less than half the sales
Net sales, EHI Retail Institute via dpa (inFranken, 4 Oct 2026); 2025 is an estimate. Kroner at the central rate €1 = DKK 7.46 (Danmarks Nationalbank).
Each rescue left a smaller chain. None of them left a chain that paid its way for long.
The tool
Rent ÷ sales: who gets paid before the shop
Rent is due whether the tills ring or not. So the first ratio to read for any store is rent divided by sales: of every €100 at the till, how much goes straight to the building?
| Store | Rent as a share of sales |
|---|---|
| KaDeWe, Berlin (not Galeria) | about 13% |
| Galeria stores in Signa buildings | up to a third, according to well-informed sources |
| Galeria, Hohe Straße, Cologne | 32%: €18m a year (DKK 134m), reported |
Rent figures are press reports: Manager Magazin via leinetal24 (Cologne); FashionUnited citing well-informed sources (Signa buildings) and other reports (KaDeWe).
In Cologne, by these reports, about €32 of every €100 went to the landlord before the store bought a single shirt. KaDeWe, a luxury store, paid about €13.
Here is the catch. Until 2024 the chain and 18 of the buildings it rented had the same majority owner. When one owner sits on both sides of the table, nobody is paid to argue for the shop.
It is hard to haggle with yourself.
Your verdict
Galeria will live only in the stores whose rent the shop itself can pay.
The department store is not dead. In January 2025, by Bernd Beetz’s account, all 83 stores were in the black.
By the reports, rent took up to a third of sales in some Galeria stores. In those stores, the shop and its landlord had the same majority owner. Each rescue cut the number of stores. In April 2026 landlords still reported missed rent.
In 2026 rent was still one of the tests the company named for the 33 stores under review. That tells you where the fourth rescue will be won or lost: store by store, lease by lease, at the ratio in the table.
Your move
You are in the chair. Three moves.
- Pay no rent a store’s sales cannot carry. I would set a ceiling for rent as a share of sales, with KaDeWe’s 13% as the yardstick, and close any store whose landlord will not come near it.
- Sell the chain in the shape that pays. Give the buyer a list that starts from the stores that earn money after rent, not from a map of every city that once had one.
- Give shoppers a reason to come into town. Sales have more than halved since 2019. A smaller chain still needs something people cannot get online.
The verdict and the moves are Max Noble’s analysis of the business, not investment advice.
The law it proves
Give the Shop and Its Landlord Different Owners
Until 2024 Galeria’s majority owner also owned 18 of its store buildings, and in some of them the rent reportedly took up to a third of sales. Four filings later, rent is still one of the tests of which stores survive. Someone must argue for the shop.
— Max Noble
Sources
Every figure can be traced
[1]p. 3; p. 5Bundesrepublik Deutschland – Finanzagentur, “Bericht über das Geschäftsjahr 2024 des Wirtschaftsstabilisierungsfonds (WSF)”, April 2025, p. 3: two stabilisation measures for GALERIA in 2021 and 2022 totalling €680.0m (silent participation €250.0m, subordinated loan €430.0m); the silent participation fully written off after the 2022 filing; €116.1m recovered from collateral; filing in autumn 2022, application on 9 Jan 2024, proceedings lifted 31 Jul 2024; p. 5: €460.0m (Feb 2021) and €220.0m (Feb 2022)
deutsche-finanzagentur.de · Bericht über das Geschäftsjahr 2024 des WSF (PDF), pp. 3, 5
[2]web pageNRDC Equity Partners and BB Kapital SA, release on Business Wire, 10 Apr 2024: acquisition of Galeria out of insolvency; Bernd Beetz, “We believe in the future of Galeria, and we have only one focus: invest, develop, and grow the department stores”
businesswire.com · NRDC Equity Partners and BB Kapital SA acquire Galeria out of insolvency
[3]pp. 301–303Neue Deutsche Biographie 11 (1977), pp. 301–303, Rudolf Lenz, “Karstadt, Rudolph”: shop opened in Wismar on 14 May 1881 with 1,000 thaler lent by his father; goods sold for cash at low prices
deutsche-biographie.de/gnd137717423.html
[4]web pageinFranken (dpa, Christian Rothenberg), 4 Oct 2026: management letter to staff, “Wir sind überzeugt, dass Galeria eine erfolgreiche Zukunft haben wird” (translated); EHI: 2019 net sales €4.5bn with 174 stores, 2025 €2bn; missed rent in April; Gordon Brothers credit line of up to €160m in June, secured on the stock; 33 stores under review in July
infranken.de · Galeria stellt abermals Insolvenzantrag
[5]web pagecash-online, 8 Oct 2026: filing on 2 Oct 2026 at the Amtsgericht Düsseldorf, the fourth in six years; provisional proceedings on 5 Oct (case 502 IN 258/26), Frank Kebekus provisional administrator; 83 stores, about 12,000 staff; owners since summer 2024 NRDC and a company linked to Bernd Beetz, before that the Signa group held the majority
cash-online.de/a/galeria-insolvenz-2026-727229
[6]web pageL’Express Franchise, 22 Oct 2026: estate loan from Gordon Brothers announced 20 Oct; goods flowing, vouchers redeemable; Frank Kebekus, “Dass am Ende vermutlich nicht alle 83 Standorte fortgesetzt werden können, das wird wahrscheinlich so sein” (translated)
lexpress-franchise.com/de/aktuelles/galeria-massedarlehen-gordon-brothers
[7]web pagecash.at, 19 Oct 2026: Roland Berger searches for investors; candidates to be known in early January
cash.at · Roland Berger sucht den nächsten Galeria-Eigentümer
[8]web pageFashionUnited, 6 Oct 2026, “Galeria: Wie es erneut zum Insolvenzantrag kommen konnte”: store closures in 2020 because of the pandemic, followed by a protective-shield proceeding; Galeria’s fourth application since 2020
fashionunited.de · Galeria: Wie es erneut zum Insolvenzantrag kommen konnte
[9]web pageFashionUnited (dpa), 22 Jul 2026: 33 stores under review; criteria included “die Mietbelastung und Ertragskraft”
fashionunited.de · Diese 33 Galeria-Filialen stehen auf dem Prüfstand
[10]web pageFashionUnited, 3 Jan 2024: rent in Signa-owned buildings up to a third of sales, citing well-informed sources; Cologne Hohe Straße over 30%; KaDeWe about 13%, by reports; Signa Prime Selection owns 18 Galeria store buildings
fashionunited.de · Kreise: Galeria zahlt hohe Mieten bei Signa-Immobilien
[11]web pageleinetal24 (Lisa Mayerhofer, with dpa), 15 Dec 2023: Cologne Hohe Straße rent €18m a year, 32% of sales, citing Manager Magazin
leinetal24.de · Galeria muss horrende Mieten zahlen
[12]web pageFashionUnited, 28 May 2024: creditors approve the plan; claims about €886.1m; about 2.5–3 cents per euro expected
fashionunited.de · Gläubiger stimmen Insolvenzplan für Galeria zu
[13]web pageORF, 27 Jan 2025: Bernd Beetz to Handelsblatt, “Alle 83 Filialen schreiben schwarze Zahlen”; last profitable about ten years earlier
orf.at/stories/3383063
[14]web pageExchange rate: euro at the Danish central rate, €1 = DKK 7.46 (Danmarks Nationalbank); market rate 26 Oct 2026, 7.4744
poundsterlinglive.com/history/EUR-DKK-2026
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Free. Leave with one click. In a class? Use the link from your teacher.The Max Noble 5 Minute Study · No. 0015
Five minutes. One company. One tool.
Now it is your call. One question, yes or no, and you see who was right.
Will someone save Galeria's stores by 31 March?
Max Noble Odds · Yes 2.50 (+50 XP) · No 1.67 (+30 XP)
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