Investors nervous – Benko: investors come into the picture

It was in July that Alfred Gusenbauer spoke directly to the ORF about the motivation of financiers investing in René Benko. When asked why so many people entrusted Benko with so much money, the former chancellor, who has been a member of Signa Group’s supervisory and advisory board for many years, explained in the business magazine “Eco”: “Well, that’s quite simple: an investor is interested that the money he uses brings in decent interest. All investors are the same. And he did that from the start. Investors have always made good money.”

From Peugeot to Kuehne
Benko and his investors have always been a separate chapter. The real estate juggler once managed to attract colorful figures such as shipowner George Economou or diamond dealer Beny Steinmetz as investors for his grand expansion plans. Today, the French Peugeot brothers, Swiss Lindt & Sprüngli boss Ernst Tanner and German forwarding billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, majority shareholder of Kühne + Nagel, are among those who, according to Gusenbauer, expect a “decent” return on their money. What the Signa investors probably didn’t expect when they got involved: that they too would be the focus of the media because of Benko’s suspected dubious business behavior.

“… not likeserious…’
After the news magazine “Spiegel”, the renowned German “Wirtschaftswoche” also published a critical article this week, which extensively examines the “dubious business practices of the real estate king” after the search at Benko’s Signa Holding: “Or Galeria Karstadt René Benko gets state aid again , is still open, but exclusive documents about the tax dispute do not take business owner René Benko particularly seriously, but also shotguns and a wine cellar play a role.” Further in the text, which also discusses the ongoing investigations into corruption, reference is made to Benko’s financiers: “Many well-known entrepreneurs have invested with him, such as the construction magnate Hans Peter Haselsteiner and the billionaire Klaus-Michael Kuehne. Not only directly through his group of companies. , but he also recently brought investors on board through a private foundation. The fact that he has already been convicted of corruption did not stop Benko.”

The “Osigarch”
The fact that Signa’s ailing department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK) has already applied for state aid from the tax fund for the third time is causing particularly strong emotions in Germany. According to media reports, it concerns another 238 million euros, which would increase public funding to a total of more than 900 million euros. In addition, shortly after the outbreak of the corona pandemic in 2020, Galeria fled to a protection shield procedure – at the time, according to the dpa news agency, “suppliers, landlords and other creditors” had to cancel about two billion euros. Even if the Signa Group likes to emphasize that in the nested corporate structure, the trading division is strictly separated from the real estate sector, business ethicists and taxpayers may also question whether it is legitimate to continue to support the billion-dollar loss-maker company with millions in taxes. The “Focus” recently noted in an online report on “Ösigarch” Benko: “While the state, creditors and employees have made a lot of sacrifices to keep the department store chain, the Austrian doesn’t seem to have brought much in. Once the last installment of the aid was paid out last January, Benkos Signa pleased its shareholders with a total dividend of 450 million euros.”

Threatening reputational damage
Incidentally, the financial platform “Inside Paradeplatz” took a particularly hard line with a Swiss shareholder a few days ago: For chocolate king Ernst Tanner, “Benko’s business was a burden. Why did the supposedly very serious Tanner team up with the controversial financier?” But according to the financial medium, other “top class, respected business leaders in Switzerland” also had Benko wrapped around their fingers, “Now they are being threatened with damage to their own reputation.”