French luxury retail group Galeries Lafayette plans to link up with Qatari investors to make a counter offer for rival department store group Le Printemps, its CEO told French daily Le Figaro. Galeries Lafayette chief executive Philippe Houze told Le Figaro he hopes Qatari investors will join Galleries Lafayette and drop their support for Italian businessman Maurizio Borletti. Printemps is 70 percent owned by Deutsche Bank real estate investment unit RREEF and 30 percent by the Borletti Group, headed by Borletti. A source close to the talks told Reuters that RREEF and the Borletti Group were in talks to sell Le Printemps to Qatari investors for up to 2 billion euros ($2.64bn).