Arcandor, a troubled German retail empire, said today it would appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel's government for a 650-million-euro (880-million-dollar) bailout to stave off collapse, dpa reported. Arcandor, which runs a chain of department stores, the Quelle mail-order business and the Thomas Cook holiday-travel company, has been in trouble for several years, with other retailers eating into its market share. In a statement, Arcandor said it considered it fulfilled all the legal requirements to receive loan guarantees from the federal and state governments and would be filing applications via its bankers late next week. Four months from a general election, the demand could put the Merkel government on the spot. A closure of Arcandor's Karstadt high-street stores and Berlin KaDeWe luxury shop, which employ 53,000 people, would wipe out a shopping institution. The company said it would also ask for a loan from the federal bank KfW. Chief executive Karl-Gerhard Eick said a decision was needed within four weeks, so that banks could roll over 650 million euros in credit which expires June 12. He said the world financial crisis was making it hard to obtain new credit without a government guarantee.
