Karstadt Property Bondholders To Meet About Lease Plan

A group of bondholders representing the debt of insolvent German retailer Karstadt's properties has called a special meeting in London for July 28 to discuss some of the terms of the takeover offer for Karstadt proposed by billionaire investor Nicholas Berggruen, according to a notice from the group seen by Dow Jones Newswires.

The bondholders group, which represents senior class A noteholders in the so-called Fleet Street Finance Two PLC securitization, has called the meeting ahead of a midnight deadline proposed by Berggruen for real estate consortium Highstreet or other noteholders to call such a meeting. Fleet Street Finance is a securitization that consists of debt of Karstadt properties, which Highstreet owns the bulk of through a sale and lease-back agreement.

Highstreet had as of Tuesday evening not presented a plan for such a meeting.

The noteholders meeting is due to take place on July 28 at 10 a.m. local U.K. time, or 0900 GMT, according to the notice sent to noteholders.

It wasn't clear if the plan for a noteholders' meeting would trigger an extension of the deal negotiations until July 30 as Berggruen proposed last week.

A Highstreet spokesman confirmed that Highstreet hadn't sent its own invitation.

A spokesman for Karstadt's insolvency administrator said a decision about whether to extend the talks would be made this week.

Berggruen last week demanded that Highstreet give notice by July 6 that it will host an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the outstanding deal terms, which include lowering rents and dividing Karstadt into separate units. Berggruen has further demanded that Highstreet obtains internal approval by July 14 to the terms of the Karstadt acquisition he has proposed, a person familiar with the matter said. In the event that Highstreet doesn't announce plans for an EGM by the July 6 deadline, Berggruen has called for other noteholders of Karstadt property debt to do so in order to approve his terms.

-By William Launder, Frankfurt Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]