Signa Prime’s creditors’ meeting did not approve the rumored sale of luxury real estate to the German industrialist Schoeller family. A deal should be completed by Monday. Apparently opinions are divided on the sales price – further negotiations will take place soon.
Assets include the Goldenes Quartier, the Hotel Park Hyatt in Vienna and the Tirol department store in Innsbruck. The German industrialists helped René Benko’s Signa Prime Selection out of the liquidity crisis last summer with a loan of 200 million euros.
In return, the Schoeller family received liens on the financing company Signa Prime Capital Invest GmbH, which includes shares in valuable properties such as the planned luxury department store Lamarr in Vienna, the KaDeWe in Berlin and the Elbtower project in Hamburg.
Of the 37 interested parties for Signa Prime Asset GmbH, to which the properties belong, the Schoeller Group is said not only to have offered the best price, but also to have made the best structural offer. This means that the liens on Signa Prime Capital are reduced, so that the exploitation of the valuable properties is no longer blocked.
Creditors initially rejected the sale
Prime’s restructuring manager did not respond to the rumors when asked. According to an ORF report, creditors are likely to speculate on achieving an even better sales price.
There was also news on Monday about Signa REM Transactions GmbH, Signa Hospitality GmbH and Burgenland Jagdpachtgesellschaft mbH. For these companies, the general audit meetings in the bankruptcy proceedings took place at the Vienna Commercial Court on Monday. The creditors have registered claims worth millions on the companies, as KSV1870 announced. The companies were closed by the bankruptcy court and there were no plans to continue or restructure them.
Meanwhile, the Munich Public Prosecution Service is investigating Signa founder René Benko on suspicion of money laundering. According to a report by the German “Bild am Sonntag”, a corresponding procedure was started in November last year.
Benko lawyers: Know nothing!
Munich authorities declined to comment on the report to the newspaper. Benko’s lawyer said he was not familiar with the procedure. According to “BamS”, this is a construction project between Munich Central Station and Karlsplatz (Stachus).
According to the report, Benko’s companies are said to have raised almost 1 billion euros from banks and investors for the purchase and development of the “Munich’s New Center” project. 120 million euros would come from Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), the newspaper writes, citing Signa files and extracts from the land registry. The Benko companies are said to have provided inflated information about future rental income in order to obtain higher loans on better terms. Much of the money is said to have flowed abroad.
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.
