An insolvency loan of 100 million euros urgently needs to be on the table during Holy Week, otherwise there will be an emergency sale of top properties. “Maybe we’ll get money this week. If it doesn’t come, then the quota for the creditors will look worse, because then we have to sell off properties through the insolvency administrator quickly and therefore cheaper,” said redeveloper Erhard Grossnigg, according to “Der Standard”.
A major real estate sale to the German Schoeller family of entrepreneurs recently failed, but the Signa trustees need fresh money quickly. Negotiations on this are reportedly ongoing. “We are talking to Schoellers about other properties and are negotiating with financiers and want to set up a mass loan of 100 million euros,” said Grossnigg, according to the newspaper (Wednesday edition).
Schoellers with an offer in mid-March
In mid-March, the Schoellers were rejected with an offer: The creditors’ committee of the insolvent Signa Prime did not agree to the sale of the “Goldenes Quartier” real estate package, the Hotel Park Hyatt and the Constitutional Court building in Vienna as well as the Tyrol department store in Innsbruck to the German industrialists. Since the beginning of this week, Austrian construction tycoon Georg Stumpf has been circulating a 1 billion euro purchase interest in the aforementioned luxury properties.
So far, the outgoing renovator Grossnigg – he is leaving after the Signa general meeting on April 10th – has not managed to get any further money for the real estate company from shareholders and investors. Signa Prime and Signa Development will soon have new board and supervisory board members. Ex-Siemens boss Wolfgang Hesoun is considered the new chairman of the supervisory board of Signa Development. Grossnigg said: “That could be the case, yes.”
“I didn’t succeed in the Signa renovation, that’s sad”
“I didn’t succeed in renovating Signa, that’s sad. I thought it would be possible to raise the money,” admitted Grossnigg once again. “But the shareholders and others who are now talking big didn’t provide me with any. They only gave Benko (Signa founder René Benko, note) money, not me.” Normally, in the event of insolvency, the owner does everything he can to keep the company going. “Nobody tried that here, the shareholders obviously invested here to make quick money. They were not interested in the company itself, but were enthusiastic about Benko’s profit machine – and Signa was a money machine for a long time.”
Benko “performed an extraordinary entrepreneurial achievement” – but unfortunately things went wrong in the end. There is hardly a real estate entrepreneur who has built such great projects as René Benko. “That was what was extraordinary about him,” said Grossnigg about his client. “Everyone says it, even abroad: Benko was a great real estate man. And he convinced people so much that they gave him money.”
Benko believed that “it would always go on like this”
Benko believed that “it would always go on like this.” From mid-2023 onwards he was no longer able to do any of this, “from then on the illiquidity was really noticeable”.
Some investors are now accusing Benko of fraud, such as Karl Gernandt, advisor to Signa investor and German billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne. Furthermore, the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) is also investigating Signa on suspicion of fraud, as has been known for a few days. At Signa Prime, for example, there are no board minutes for the board meetings in 2022 and 2023, according to the insolvency administrator.
When asked whether Benko and others could be prosecuted, Grossnigg said: “Everyone will have to prove that they acted correctly. I don’t know whether they will succeed. They will definitely be worried.” In any case, the entrepreneur vehemently rejects the fact that Signa was a “pyramid game”, as many people argued: “No. A pyramid game is a scam that was set up right from the start, and Signa was not a scam.”
