The financially distressed Signa Develpment can look forward to a cash injection: the state real estate company BIG is buying shares in Vienna Twenty Two, a major project in Vienna’s Danube City, for ten million euros.
Together with Signa Prime Selection AG and Signa Holding GmbH, Signa Development Selection AG is one of the most important core companies in René Benko’s opaque real estate empire. All three companies are insolvent and Signa Holding’s self-governance was revoked on Thursday, as reported. This means that the curator, Christof Stapf, now takes over operational management; the managers once appointed by financial juggler Benko have become powerless.
On Friday, Stapf’s colleague at Signa Development, the restructuring manager Andrea Fruhstorfer, was happy with the announcement of cash injections: according to “Presse” the Federal Real Estate Company (BIG) is acquiring Signa Development’s shares in Vienna Twenty Two, a major project in Vienna Donaustadt, where apartments, offices and a hotel are to be built by 2025 at a total cost of 533 million euros.
Drop in the ocean
Vienna Twenty Two, whose construction is approximately 80 percent complete, would actually be constructed “almost equally” by a BIG subsidiary (ARE) and a subsidiary of Signa Development. Just two days ago, Signa said construction work was proceeding as planned; and would in principle be fully funded. According to the media report, subsidiary BIG is now acquiring the shares for almost ten million euros. This has already been confirmed by the supervisory board of Signa Development, chaired by Alfred Gusenbauer.
Signa Development’s restructuring manager Fruhstorfer had previously announced, as reported, that Signa investor and Gusenbauer confidante Hans Peter Haselsteiner, 79, provided a massive loan of 25 million euros. Given the scale of Signa’s bankruptcies, this can initially only be seen as a drop in the ocean.
Haselsteiner’s friend Erhard Grossnigg, 77, who has been on the board of both Signa Development and Signa Prime since December, had appealed to Signa investors in strange begging letters, first for 300 and then for 150 million euros. Apart from Haselsteiner, no other investors apparently wanted to provide new money for the time being.
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.
