Metro loses interest in buying Karstadt stores, paper

FRANKFURT, Nov 1 (Reuters) - German retailer Metro (MEOG.DE) is increasingly losing interest in acquiring the stores of Karstadt, the department store unit of insolvent Arcandor (AROG.DE), a German newspaper said on Sunday, citing sources.

It said opposition among Metro's supervisory board members to such an acquisition is growing, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said.

A spokesman for Metro, the world's fourth largest retailer, declined comment.

Metro had said before it was interested in taking over 60 Karstadt stores.

The administrator of Karstadt is still confident that an investor will buy the department store chain as a whole, according to an interview for weekly magazine Focus. [ID:nLO590356]

Arcandor filed for insolvency in June after the German government rejected its calls for state aid, making the company the country's biggest non-bank casualty of the financial market crisis.