There is a risk of slipping on smooth parquet floors. Especially on the New York Stock Exchange. Austrian department store juggler Rene Benko also had this painful experience. Namely at its online retailer Signa Sports United, whose shares have suffered a real price drop since the beginning of this year and have lost around 94 percent of their value. Much to the chagrin of investors, which, according to an August 2023 stock exchange prospectus, include German R&V life insurance, Bavarian civil servants life insurance and former Austrian ski racer Harti Weirather.
Now the German “Manager Magazin” reports that an emergency stop is necessary. It literally says: “Now, less than two years after the IPO, Rene Benko puts an end to the disastrous excursion and makes a radical change: he takes Signa Sports United private. Officially, a restructuring and downsizing of all business units is planned due to ‘serious liquidity and profitability problems’. In other words: highest alert level.”
Signa Sports United lost value dramatically in September alone: at the end of August the share, which started at over $10 in December 2021, was still trading at $1.30. For example, last Thursday, shortly after the start of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Signa Sports United’s shares were worth just $0.25, which meant a market capitalization of almost $100 million. Just a reminder: Before Benkos Signa went public at the end of 2021, he had dreamed of a valuation of up to $4 billion, according to media reports.
Payment in installments in the Kika/Leiner case
Recently, Rene Benko’s group, in which prominent financiers such as the Hamburg industrialist Klaus-Michael Kühne (Kühne + Nagel) and ex-Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiner play a role, has also suffered major (reputational) losses in Austria: The bankruptcy of Kika/Leiner, which was particularly bitter from the taxpayer’s point of view, had to be increased by 20 million by the former owner Signa. Payment in installments was agreed.
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.
