1,900 jobs will be cut and more than half of the locations will be evacuated. But the carousel keeps spinning. According to information from Krone, the new owners of the Kika-Leiner properties have instructed international brokerage firm CBRE to resell 24 Signa Group properties around department store juggler Rene Benko until the end of May.
The 46-year-old Tyrolean Benko, with the active help of politicians, had promised a renovation of the traditional furniture chain with a total of 40 branches since 2018, but apparently did not follow the words with sustainable action.
18 furniture stores, six warehouses
CBRE Austria was recently commissioned by the new owner, the Graz Supernova Group of German entrepreneur Frank Albert, to market 24 homes from Kika Leiner’s real estate portfolio. The objects, which are located in Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Styria and Burgenland, are 18 former Kika and Leiner furniture stores and six storage and logistics properties. For the most part, the closure of the homes had already been publicly announced when the takeover took place; they can therefore be taken over by interested parties as early as the end of July.
In Tyrol and Salzburg, the Kika stores in Imst, Wörgl, St. Johann im Pongau and Lienz are for sale. In Upper and Lower Austria the houses in Ried im Innkreis, the locations in Steyr and Vöcklabruck, Amstetten, Krems, Stockerau and Mistelbach. In addition, there is the Leiner branch in Vienna in the 22nd district, in Burgenland there are branches in Eisenstadt and Unterwart. And in Styria, properties in Leoben, Feldbach and Judenburg are offered for sale.
314,459 square meters in seven states
In the context of the acquisition of the real estate package by the Supernova Group, owner Frank Albert mentioned the sale of individual properties in conversation with Krone. A total of 383,756 m2 of land with a total usable area of 314,459 m2 is now for sale in seven federal states. The objects can be purchased individually or as a package.
Kika-Leiner sold Benko’s Signa to Supernova and retail expert Hermann Wieser at the end of May. Recently, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine” reported on an unprecedented audit by the banking supervisors of the European Central Bank (ECB). In sight: European banks with Benkos Signa as a customer.
Gusenbauer, Strabag, Raiffeisen
By the way: Ex-SPÖ chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer holds important supervisory positions at both Signa and Strabag as president. Strabag founder Hans Peter Haselsteiner is a major investor in Signa. The Raiffeisen banking group, which according to “Spiegel” lent the Signa group a total of about two billion euros, is considered the most important Signa lender in Austria. Media holding companies such as the Kurier also belong to the Raiffeisen empire.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
