On December 19, the Vienna Commercial Court will decide whether controversial financial juggler René Benko’s bankrupt Signa Holding will continue and whether there will be self-government. Alternative scenarios can become more uncomfortable.
Christof Stapf hit the jackpot as trustee of the largest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history. The 65-year-old lawyer can earn more than 15 million euros within 76 days at Signa Holding if the restructuring on his own responsibility is successful with a rate of 30 percent, given the excessive debt burden of five billion euros indicated by Signa.
If the creditors and the court agree on February 12, Stapf will have worked for a daily rate of 197,368 euros, the “Krone” reports. The compensation is based on any amount that Benko’s bankrupt holding company has to raise for creditors. 30 percent of the five billion debts would amount to 1.5 billion euros. By law, one percent of this goes to Stapf.
The “Super Supervisory Board”
For Benko’s curator, self-administration is probably the most pleasant option. This means that he has the least work, because with self-management, Benko’s directors remain in office and Stapf himself, as a kind of “super supervisor”, only has to carry out supervision and approval tasks. However, there are also alternative scenarios: without self-government, the legal quota would be only 20 percent.
Benko would save 500 million euros in quota payments, but the restructuring administrator would take full control until creditors vote. The work and responsibility for the restructuring manager would be much higher, but his fee based on the legal quota would no longer be 15, but only ten million euros.
Interesting offers in the center of Vienna
At best, Christof Stapf could probably get a lot more out of it. For yourself and for the many creditors of Signa Holding. If Stapf, as trustee, has to go through the trouble of liquidating assets, creditor quotas could quickly skyrocket. The financially distressed Signa Holding has a 62 percent interest in Signa Prime Selection AG, in which the properties are parked in the best city center locations. And according to Signa, they were worth 16.2 billion euros less than three years ago.
In any case, the latest sales indicate that there is actually a lot of money to be made on Prime properties. If Signa’s internal estimates are correct, a figure of 100 percent would even be conceivable – from a purely mathematical perspective. And indeed: the Meinl House at Graben 19 in the center of Vienna was recently sold to the Vienna Medical Association for 80 million euros. According to research by ‘Krone’, the valuation books of the complicated Signa Group showed only slightly more than 50 million at the end of 2020.
The Signa emergency sale of the so-called Apple House at Kärntner Straße 11 had already caused a stir in the spring. The considerable purchase price: 95 million euros. It is possible that these deals will prompt creditor protectors to take a serious look at the prudent use of Signa Holding’s assets.
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.
