After the series of insolvencies at Signa, the founder of the real estate and trading group has now declared himself insolvent. René Benko has filed for bankruptcy at the Innsbruck regional court, a court spokeswoman confirmed to the German Press Agency on Thursday. A judge is expected to rule on the 46-year-old entrepreneur’s request in the coming days, she said. The “Kronen Zeitung” had previously reported on it.
Becoming a self-made billionaire without a high school diploma: That was the short version of the real estate and retail tycoon’s rise to fame until Benko lost his billionaire status at the beginning of December. Benko, who was born in Innsbruck in 1977, began renovating attics as a teenager. He left business school without a degree and went into the real estate business. In 2004, the then 26-year-old made headlines with the purchase of a department store in Innsbruck, which was then redesigned as a shopping center by British star architect David Chipperfield.
Benko managed to get financially strong supporters on board – such as logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne, management consultant Roland Berger and Torsten Toeller, the founder of the Fressnapf pet stores. “That’s easy. Investors are interested in ensuring that the money they invest earns a decent interest rate,” said former Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, who held various advisory and supervisory roles in the Signa Group. “The investors have always earned well,” Gusenbauer told broadcaster ORF.
The Agnelli car manufacturer family as a role model
Benko wanted to develop much more than real estate. “Signa is intended to be a family-owned European industrial and investment holding company. “Similar to the family holdings of the Agnellis, Oetkers or Reimanns,” he told the Austrian magazine “Trend” in 2018. The Italian car manufacturing family Agnelli (Stellantis), the Oetkers with their food and beverage companies and the Reimann beverage dynasty (Jacobs) are active not only in their core businesses, but in several industries.
Like the Agnellis, Benko also relied on media, like the Oetkers, he also relied on hotels. He also invested in the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group and in the online retail of sporting goods. Today is the Galeria Group insolvent again, just like them Sports division. The media holdings are about to be sold. Benko’s prestigious investments also include this
Elbtower project in Hamburgthe luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and that Chrysler Building in New York.
The current triggers for the Signa crisis are interest rates, energy prices and construction costs, which have risen sharply in the wake of the Ukraine war. But there were earlier signs of possible problems. “I left Signa as a shareholder in 2016 because the figures that were presented to me did not correspond to what Benko told us in the meetings,” said former Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking to the “Handelsblatt”. In addition, there was a lack of transparency in the barely transparent Signa company network with hundreds of sub-companies.
“Most exciting bankruptcy in the Signa complex”
Until a few months ago, Benko was considered one of the richest Austrians. According to the US magazine Forbes, Benko’s value reached a high of $6 billion (5.5 billion euros) in 2023. But at the beginning of December, Forbes removed him from its international billionaire list in view of Signa’s growing problems.
Benko has now filed for bankruptcy as an entrepreneur. In contrast to personal bankruptcy, he can therefore go through a restructuring process that is similar to that of a company. The Republic of Austria had previously filed a bankruptcy petition against him at the Innsbruck Regional Court. Among other things, this involved a subsidy that Benko had announced for the insolvent holding company of the Signa Group, which had not yet been fully paid.
“I actually think this is the most exciting bankruptcy in the entire Signa complex,” said Gerhard Weinhofer from the credit agency Creditreform in Vienna. “Where is the money? “Why is it illiquid?” said the expert about the events. The media has recently written several times about money transfers in which Benko’s private foundations played a role.
Benko has not yet publicly commented on the financial claims against him or the Signa crisis. He would have the opportunity to do this at the beginning of April. He has been invited to a parliamentary investigative committee that is investigating the possible preferential treatment by the authorities of politically well-connected large entrepreneurs. (dpa)
This post was updated at 4:18 p.m. on March 7th.