The head of the non-transparent Signa Group must pay three million euros in installments for the largest part of Signa Holding. Some of the money comes from third parties. His two private foundations in Innsbruck also contained hardly any significant amounts at the end of 2022.
René Benko and his Signa Group suffered the largest billion-dollar bankruptcy of the Second Republic. Now the financial juggler is also coming under increasing personal pressure: the Republic of Austria has filed for bankruptcy against the Tyrolean; This was announced on Thursday via “Standaard”. Moreover, the report of the curator of Signa Holding, which is available to the Crown, shows that René Benko only paid the first installment of his payment of 3 million euros to the trust itself. The second tranche of 845,000 euros came on January 8 “from a third party”. The third installment should arrive this week – also from a third party.
Cash balances in the foundations
How is it possible that the real estate speculator, who until a few weeks ago was still on Forbes’ billionaire list, is suddenly so short of cash that he has to rely on installment payments or support from third parties for an amount of three million euros? Is required? Can’t Benko just take out a loan from his private foundations, which serve to provide his family with financial security?
An answer to this question can be found by taking a closer look at the confidential balance sheets of its two most important foundations, held by the Crown:
According to its annual accounts as of December 31, 2022, the Innsbruck-based Benko Family Private Foundation only had cash balances with banks totaling 640,953 euros. Last year, 8.274 million euros were still available.
According to its last annual accounts from 13 months ago, the Tyrol-based Laura Private Foundation only had 1.836 million euros in cash available. The year before, things looked much brighter: 31.222 million euros were in cash in the accounts.
A striking detail: René Benko was already in trouble at the Benko Family Private Foundation at the end of 2022. He borrowed 21 million euros.
Bear boss has to go
Meanwhile, the collapse of the Benko house of cards is also taking business partners with it: in Switzerland, Julius Baer confirmed the departure of bank boss Philipp Rickenbacher in connection with bad loans to the financially ailing Signa conglomerate. The bank had lent about 606 million francs (about 650 million euros) to the real estate juggler’s network of companies – without sufficient collateral. Julius Baer is now writing off the loan in full. Group profit will halve to 453 million francs in 2023.
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.
