Reports indicate that Metro Group has started discussing the possible sale of its Kaufhof and GB Inno department stores in Germany and Belgium, possibly including the Kaufhof Sportarena stores, with the Canadian Hudson's Bay department store group. Signa Retail, the Austrian-based real estate company that bought Karstadt and Karstadt Sports, has reportedly made a counter-offer, raising a bid that it had made five years ago to a new level of €2.9 billion. It seems that an expression of interest has also come from Thailand's Central Group, which already bought La Rinascente in Italy in 2011 and Illum in Denmark in 2013. Metro has reported on a drop in Kaufhof's operating profit to €126 million on one percent lower sales of €1.67 billion for the first half ended March 31.

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