Real estate investor René Benko is withdrawing from the Austrian furniture market. Signa announced on Thursday that Benko’s Signa Group had sold all of the real estate and the operational business of the furniture chain Kika/Leiner. On the other hand, Signa will not part with a large luxury department store under construction in the center of Vienna, said Managing Director Christoph Stadlhuber.
The operative business of Kika/Leiner goes with immediate effect to an investment company headed by the former Kika/Leiner manager Hermann Wieser. The properties would be taken over by the Supernova Group of German specialist retailer Frank Albert. No information was given about the amount of the takeover price of the group with its 40 locations. Signa took over Kika/Leiner from the South African Steinhoff Group in 2018.
The Austrian billionaire and real estate investor René Benko owns, among other things, the retail chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK), which is struggling to survive. The restructuring plan for GKK provides for the closure of around a third of the last 129 branches. In Vienna, on the other hand, Signa, as a co-owner of the Kadewe Group, is building the new luxury department store “Lamarr” with 20,000 square meters of retail space. The department store is scheduled to open in 2025. (dpa)