After filing for bankruptcy on Friday, things are now looking bad on the hard-pressed homepage of Tyrolean investor Rene Benko’s Signa – there is nothing left available.
At https://www.signa.at/de/ there were only e-mail press contacts and the legal notice in the afternoon and evening. The “Kurier” wrote about “maintenance work” with reference to a spokesperson. According to media reports, the group’s first German real estate subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
“We are carrying out maintenance work on the homepage this weekend,” said Signa spokesman Robert Leingruber, according to the online report “Kurier”. The real estate and trading group, where according to media reports a German real estate subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on Friday, continued to leave questions from the APA unanswered. There was also no response from the office of Signa renovator Arndt Gietenz.
Restructure the company?
A renovation of the homepage could indicate a restructuring of the company, which, according to experts, urgently needs hundreds of millions of euros to prevent the worst. The construction freeze on prestigious buildings in German cities underlines the fact that the situation is difficult. The company, which has about 1,000 companies, is considered extremely opaque.
“If white smoke doesn’t rise this weekend, things will be tight,” the German “FAZ” (Saturday) quoted an insider. “Der Standard” again reported this weekend about unclear ownership and rental conditions of a luxury Signa property on Lake Garda in Northern Italy, which Benko would use privately.
Domino effect not sure
However, according to the “FAZ”, it is unclear whether the first bankruptcy appeal of Signa Real Estate Germany GmbH to the court on Friday – which “Spiegel” and “News” reported, but on which the company did not comment – will lead to a domino effect. I’m not sure. “Insolvency no longer means bankruptcy as it used to,” said one person involved, according to the newspaper, in response to the bankruptcy application. Negotiations for fresh money will still continue, there will be another player in the form of a receiver and the developers of currently dormant projects, jointly associated with Signa, have no interest in everything being put on hold; wants to complete the projects.
The hope: a mezzanine investor!
Hope in the Benko empire now apparently rests on a mezzanine investor, according to several media reports in recent days. This would result in a loan of 500, perhaps even 600 million euros, part of which could be secured, but part of which is also unsecured. This means that extremely high interest rates are due. Together with the additional costs, the borrowing costs can amount to more than 20 percent per year.
This also makes it clear that Signa could especially gain time with such an investor to enable systematic restructuring. According to information from the “FAZ” and other unconfirmed reports, an investor who is not one of the previous donors is still currently examining the Signa documents.
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.
