13.07.2007

Essen/Bremen, 13 July 2007. Karstadt and the business travel specialist BCD Travel have agreed on a strategic partnership concerning the sales of tourism services. As part of this agreement Karstadt will take over the management of ten BCD Travel Holiday travel agencies with approximately 40 employees in a separate group. After the sale BCD wants to concentrate more intensively on its core business of "Business Travel" with its BCD Meetings & Incentives and Advice (Advito) divisions.

With this strategic partnership with BCD Travel, Karstadt is markedly expanding its sales volume in the tourism industry and creates a new contact base providing access to a variety of attractive BCD Travel customers. BCD Travel Germany GmbH is the German market leader in business travel.

In future Karstadt will take over consulting and providing services to business travel customers of BCD Travel concerning private trips. Few things will change for the holiday customers: The contact persons and phone number will remain the same, only email addresses will be changed to reflect the new owner. In total the partnership includes ten BCD Travel Holidays travel agencies in Hamburg, Berlin, Hanover, Salzgitter, Essen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Coburg, Stuttgart and Munich.

The agreement between both parties is still subject to the approval of the Monopolies Commission.

Udo Klein, head of the Karstadt travel agencies explained, "We are happy about the acquisition of the holiday division of BCD Travel and look forward to working together in future. Furthermore, we are convinced that we can get the business travel customers of our new partner excited with attractive holiday offers."

Stefan Vorndran, spokesperson of the BCD Travel management stated, "It has been important for us to find a partner that offers our holiday division and their staff a positive perspective for the future. The Karstadt travel agencies are excellently positioned and will look after the holiday makers continuing our high standard of service. As a first step it is important to create a smooth transition for our customers together."

Karstadt
Rudolph Karstadt opened his first shop in Wismar on 14 May 1881. 125 years after its founding, Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arcandor AG, is one of Europe's leading department store companies. Between 2.5 and three million customers visit the 90 department stores and 32 sports goods stores every day. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Peter Wolf, a member of the Management Board of Arcandor AG (Essen).

BCD Travel
BCD Travel, a leading provider of global travel management, simplifies and streamlines business travel processes for companies. The customers benefit in all respects, from the savings potential for their company to the well-being of the traveller.
BCD is present in more than 90 countries on five continents with sales revenues of US$12 thousand million. BCD Travel is a subsidiary of BCD Holdings N.V. and has 12,000 employees worldwide.