The insolvent holding company of the real estate and trading group Signa is selling prestigious properties and investments.
As the insolvency administrator of Signa Holding GmbH, Christof Stapf, announced on Tuesday in Vienna, discussions are underway about exiting investments such as the famous Chrysler Building in New York. Stapf also announced the exploitation of media investments. However, Stapf said he is trying to support the stabilization of the Signa core companies that are not directly affected by the bankruptcy. These include Signa Prime, Signa Development and Signa Retail with investments such as the Hamburg Elbtower and the Galeria department store group.
Signa Holding, founded by Austrian entrepreneur René Benko, says it has liabilities worth 5 billion euros. Creditors have so far claimed 1.1 billion euros of this as part of the judicial insolvency proceedings.
In the complex company structure of the Signa Group, there is a “lack of management capacity with comprehensive knowledge” and the holding company has “recently only partially fulfilled its control function,” stated Stapf. The holding company has an indirect stake in hundreds of companies. According to Stapf, the organizational chart fills 46 pages in A3 format.
The holding company has already terminated the rental agreements for its offices in two luxurious city center palaces in Vienna, and the disposal of the company jet is in progress, said Stapf. In order to ensure the liquidity of the holding company, more than the three million euros that Benko has so far promised and some of which have already been allocated are probably needed.
Signa had expanded significantly during the years of low interest rates. Rising interest rates, energy prices and construction costs have brought the group into its current difficulties. (dpa)