Berlin (dpa) - A real-estate company finalized a deal in Germany Friday which will allow an insolvent chain of department stores employing 25,000 people to remain in business under new ownership.

US investor Nicholas Berggruen, 49, is to take over the Karstadt chain of stores, which are landmark retailers in many German cities.

Berggruen has been in months of high-stakes talks with the Highstreet company which owns many of the 170 properties, demanding rent concessions as a precondition before he buys into Karstadt.

Highstreet said Friday its own creditors had okayed the deal. Highstreet agreed on Thursday in principle to Berggruen′s terms, and its own creditors signed key papers Friday.

Berggruen′s takeover of the Karstadt chain is expected to be approved by an insolvency judge in the western city of Essen.

The German government became involved in the talks because of the threat of 25,000 redundancies at one of Germany′s best-known chains. The Labour Ministry in Berlin confirmed Friday that all the necessary signatures on legal documents had been collected.

Most high-street department stores in Germany have been dogged by financial problems as clothing and electronics chains out-compete them. The growth of suburban shopping malls has also been blamed for the decline of many of the inner-city stores. dpa mi/kf jbp dms Author: Jean-Baptiste Piggin