Spectacular acquisitions used to make headlines. In recent months, however, René Benko’s Signa Group has attracted attention with a large number of sales. It seemed that after his mixed forays into retail (Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof in Germany, Kika/Leiner in Austria), the department store juggler would like to return to the real estate sector. With fresh money that should have come into the house through the sale.
Now for the next setback: Creditreform AG, considered the largest of the smaller rating agencies, has suspended its rating for Benkos Signa Prime Selection AG, considered the flagship of the nested corporate conglomerate. This is evident from a press release published by Creditreform on 18 August.
It states, among other things, that the ‘ratings of Signa Prime Selection AG’ and three subsidiaries have been ‘set to no (not rated) because the last published rating of A-/negative is no longer current and the investigation of objections and statements from Signa Prime Selection AG in the course of a rating action.” Companies generally try to avoid such a suspension of a rating as much as possible, as this does not necessarily send positive signals in the direction of the capital market and therefore of potential investors.
‘The time of bonanza is over’
Speaking of investors: this development is probably also explosive internally at Signa. After all, Signa Prime Selection AG involves colorful personalities such as the Peugeot brothers or the Hamburg entrepreneur and football fan Klaus-Michael Kühne. Thanks to his interests in Kuehne + Nagel and Lufthansa, Kuehne is one of the richest Germans with reported private wealth of around €40 billion. He or his governor have been criticized for Benko’s signa in recent months.
For example, the Swiss Handelzeitung headlined at the beginning of March: “Billionaire reconsiders investments: Klaus-Michael Kühne distances himself from real estate entrepreneur René Benko”. Germany’s “Spiegel” in turn quoted Kühne’s confidant Karl Gernandt, who sits on the Supervisory Board of Signa Prime Selection AG, at the end of July as saying: “The ‘bonanza time’ of recent years is ‘definitely over’. “; “Signa Prime must steer a ‘consolidation course’, ‘not expand, but secure’ the business.’ Gernandt’s motto according to the German magazine: ‘Risk must disappear, solidity must come.’
By the way: former SPÖ chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer holds important supervisory positions as president at both Signa and Strabag. Strabag founder Hans Peter Haselsteiner is a major Signa investor.
The Raiffeisen banking group, which according to Spiegel de Signa group would have borrowed a total of about two billion euros at peak times, is considered the most important Signa lender in Austria. Media 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.
