The first creditors’ meeting of the insolvent Signa Holding lasted one hour on Tuesday. Dozens of creditor representatives were there when restructuring manager Christof Stapf presented his report.
The costs for the continued operation of Signa Holding have been covered for the time being. Signa founder Rene Benko paid or promised three million euros for this. However, “further safeguards would be necessary” to finance the complex process, said Stapf. The exact liquidity requirement will be determined “this week or next week”.
Signa’s rental agreements in two inner-city palaces in Vienna have already been terminated. All sub-operations described as representation and acquisition, such as hunting and flying activities, were “immediately closed”. The exploitation of the holding company’s Cessna Citation XLS private jet is “in progress”.
More on the subject: Buyer wanted: Signa sells shares in “Krone” and “Kurier”.
The real estate group’s media holdings in “Kronen Zeitung” and “Kurier” are also to be sold. Stapf said that discussions were also underway regarding investing in Signa RFR US Selection AG, which owns the Chrysler Building in New York.
The previous review of last year’s events has revealed several business cases that are relevant for further proceedings, said Stapf. According to Creditreform managing director Gerhard Weinhofer, there are “53 business cases that need to be examined with regard to contestation, reclaim or similar claims”.
In order to get an overview of the processes in the complicated company network, Stapf brought consultants from Deloitte on board. The data backup ordered by the court “is proving difficult”, but has now been started with considerable delay.
Restructuring and reorganization efforts are underway at the currently not insolvent subsidiaries Signa Development and Signa Prime.
Managers lack knowledge
The review also revealed that “there is a lack of management capacity with comprehensive knowledge in the group’s middle management area” and that “the holding company has recently only partially fulfilled its control function,” said Stapf.
However, since the bodies are working with the restructuring administrator in a “motivated and focused manner”, as things stand today “no change in the type of procedure is necessary”. Signa Holding had filed for restructuring proceedings with self-administration. “However, withdrawal of self-administration is still possible at any stage of the insolvency proceedings,” says Karl-Heinz Götze, head of insolvency at KSV1870. According to Weinhofer, a steering committee with ten to 15 large creditors, the debtor and Stapf should also be installed.
