Hard criticism in the media – René Benko: Between party and hangover mood

When corruption investigators searched the house of his holding company Signa on Tuesday morning, René Benko was still in Saudi Arabia. On Thursday evening, shortly after his return, he celebrated a pompous party in the Vienna Museum Quarter. The goal was to reveal the name of his future luxury department store on Mariahilfer Strasse: Lamarr, named after Vienna-born artist Hedy Lamarr.

The real estate juggler had acquired the former Kika Leiner home shortly after Christmas 2017, with the support of the then-top politicians led by then-new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, for a bargain price of €60 million, according to media reports.

“Who did the German politicians come into contact with?”
On Friday, the hangover mood should have spread in the Tyrolean group of companies, at least if we look at the German media. For example, the “Spiegel” reports on the bribery investigation against the owner of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK), which has collected 680 million in state aid so far, and is already asking: “Who are the German politicians in touch with? come?”

The report continues: “The investigation paints the picture of an entrepreneur who apparently sees the Austrian state as a self-service shop and puppet theatre. The question arises: does he see things in the same way in Germany?’ After all, ‘Signna’s business is highly externally financed’. Benko had to “raise or borrow staggering amounts of money to pay out millions in dividends to prominent co-investors such as forwarding billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne. Mayors or aldermen like to be personally charmed by the boss.”

Berlin as “hostage of a gangster”?
The findings of a politician from Berlin are particularly harsh in the largest German news magazine. Literally it says in the “Spiegel”: “Benko has already been convicted, says Katalin Gennburg, spokeswoman for urban development for the Left Group in the House of Representatives. The recent corruption allegations are an ‘alarm signal’ to stop cooperation with Benko ‘immediately’. ‘End’. His methods are ‘very problematic’, the city must not be ‘taken hostage by a gangster’.”

Reputable financial media such as the “Financial Times” or “Bloomberg” had previously reported on major financing problems for Benko’s Signa Group in the capital market. The “Spiegel” remarks on this: “Doubt is also increasing in the financial markets. A bond of 300 million euros from Signa Development Selection has been under pressure for a few days, which Benko dismisses as hardly worth mentioning. After the search message it went further down. Sometimes the paper was only worth 55 cents. If it came now and not in 2026, those who believed in Benko would only get a little more than half of every dollar they borrowed.

State aid: “A scandal”
Even in the former Benko-friendly media, the headwind is getting stronger: the “Handelsblatt” published a guest commentary on Tuesday titled: “No more subsidies for billionaire Galeria owner René Benko”. Author Volker Brühl, Professor of Finance in Frankfurt: “In times of labor shortages, jobs in a barely sustainable department store chain do not need to be saved.” State aid for Galeria would be “a scandal”, he said.

It was precisely in these turbulent times that Benko’s Signa Group in Vienna celebrated the naming of a future luxury department store. By the way: Hedy Lamarr also came into conflict with the law twice, according to Wikipedia. For shoplifting.