While René Benko’s bankrupt Signa Holding struggles for a restructuring process ‘under self-management’ and the real estate juggler wants to continue pulling the strings in the background, more and more details about the obligations of the Signa empire are becoming known. On Wednesday it was announced that Benko also has debts to the company of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
As confirmed to krone.at, SK Management had submitted an invoice for Signa for 2.4 million euros in 2023 after a successful search for investors, but only 750,000 euros of this was paid. This leaves 1.65 million euros open.
The investment from a foreign investor, through which SK Management mediated, amounted to a total of 100 million dollars (approximately 91 million euros). However, in view of the bankruptcy of Signa Holding GmbH, Signa will no longer pay the debts to SK Management. The Kurz company must register the amount as a claim and then receive the insolvency quota like other creditors.
Benko was considered a confidante
Benko was considered a close confidante of Kurz. During his term in office, the turquoise blue government helped Benko take over the Leiner House on Mariahilferstrasse in Vienna.
Signa Holding justified its move to the bankruptcy court on Wednesday by saying that the group’s retail division, and especially stationary retail, had come under heavy pressure. The group had acquired, among others, the German Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof. Signa’s investments in this area did not yield the expected success. In the real estate sector, ‘external factors’ have recently had a negative impact on business development. Despite significant efforts, the company said it was unable to secure the necessary liquidity that would have been required for an out-of-court restructuring.
Signa needs billions
According to media reports, the entire Signa Group needs around 500 million euros in the short term to cover the ongoing costs of wages and salaries or the ongoing construction sites, an insider said. Another 1.5 billion euros will be needed by the middle of next year. At the end of November, so this week, a 200 million euro bond loan from Signa Prime matures.
The entire Signa Group has outstanding debts worth billions with banks – in Austria alone there are reportedly around 2.2 billion, most of which are with Unicredit subsidiary Bank Austria and in the Raiffeisen sector.
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.
