The head of the Hamburg real estate group and shopping center operator ECE, Alexander Otto, does not see any serious effects of the Signa crisis on his industry. “The mood in the industry is already extremely bad, and Signa’s problems will certainly not improve it,” Otto told ‘Wirtschaftswoche’. But the real estate industry is very fragmented. “Even Signa doesn’t have a particularly high market share. “I therefore assume that the consequences will remain manageable,” said Otto.
Signa Holding GmbH, owned by the Austrian real estate and trading entrepreneur René Benko, applied for self-administration restructuring proceedings on Wednesday. The real estate and trading group consists of a complex network of companies with several hundred individual companies. This includes Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof. Germany’s last large department store group had to seek rescue for the second time in protective shield proceedings at the end of 2022. Galeria is represented in 5 of the approximately 100 ECE shopping centers across Germany.
ECE is one of the largest real estate companies in Germany and is best known for its around 200 shopping centers across Europe. Business there is developing well this year, Otto told ‘Wirtschaftswoche’. “By the end of September, our sales in the centers across Europe were around twelve percent higher than the previous year.” The first days of the Christmas business also got off to a good start. The real estate industry will continue to be under pressure in the coming year. “I don’t expect a revival until 2025,” said Otto. (dpa)