“An insolvency house in Romania was designated to sell Praktiker’s properties on the Romanian market, a company that owns a large store in our center. At the present we are conducting negotiations to restructure the lease contract to recover debts pertaining to rent and maintenance costs”, according to a report of European Convergence Development Company, one of Era Shopping Centre’s shareholders.

Contacted by Mediafax, the Praktiker representatives failed to comment.

The German group has been struggling in the last few years and at the end of 2011 announced it will close stores in Germany and leave the Albanian market. In 2013, Maseltov, the biggest Praktiker shareholder, announced it wants the retailer to leave Eastern Europe. Afterwards, Praktiker said it will not drop important branches, like the one in Romania. On the local market, Praktiker is competing with other DYI retailers, such as Ambient, bauMax, Dedeman, Hornbach, Mr. Bricolage, OBI, Kingfisher and Leroy Merlin.

Last year, Praktiker AG, the mother company for the german group, entered insolvency. (source: business-review.eu)