April 7 - Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, owner of Karstadt department stores, said he is on the lookout for takeover opportunities in Germany but not eyeing rival chain Kaufhof, a unit of Metro, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) said.

Entrance of a Karstadt department store in Leipzig, Germany.

Berggruen told FAZ the retail group would reposition itself into three segments, luxury department stores like KaDeWe, the Karstadt department stores, and sport retailers. Each would be run with its own profit and loss account, FAZ said in an extract of its Friday edition.

Berggruen further said he had no plans to sell Karstadt and said he is happy with the way business is currently developing.

While Berggruen is interested in takeovers in Germany he said he is "not looking" at Kaufhof, but admitted having met Metro Chief Executive Eckhard Cordes "socially."

(Reporting by Edward Taylor, editing by Bernard Orr)