Race against time: the air is getting thinner for Signa

2023-11-28 18:03:00

The situation surrounding Tyrolean Rene Benko’s ailing Signa Group remains opaque. As of Tuesday afternoon, no information about the discussions with investors or possible bankruptcy filings had come from the company.

Signa and the office of the German renovator Arndt Geiwitz were just as unreachable as Signa shareholder Hans Peter Haselsteiner or the chief controller of the Signa companies Prime and Development, ex-chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.

Signa Real Estate Management Germany has already filed for insolvency, and insiders fear subsequent bankruptcies. A bond of 200 million euros is due on Thursday, and according to rumors, Signa will have to raise 500 to 600 million euros by the end of the year.

Signa announced on November 8th that Benko would withdraw from management and Geiwitz would take over as chairman of the holding company’s shareholders’ committee. According to an insider, this has not happened yet. Geiwitz does not yet formally hold the position and therefore still only plays the role of an advisor. But reliable APA information says that Geiwitz will only take over the chairmanship of the Signa committee once the urgently needed capital injection of around half a billion has been made. The information about the advisory board just disappeared on the Signa homepage.

Older Signa consultant costs have also recently become an issue. The former SPÖ boss and Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer has been the acting head of the Signa Prime supervisory board since 2010 and the Signa Development chief controller since 2015 and, according to “News”, is said to have paid Signa Holding consulting fees amounting to a good seven million euros for the years 2020 to spring 2022 invoiced. According to the report, Gusenbauer’s involvement with Signa began shortly after his departure from the Chancellery at the end of 2008.

At a central company in the Signa Group, “Familie Benko 2017 Zwei GmbH”, the voting rights were returned from Benko to investor Arthur Eugster, manufacturer of coffee machines for Jura, Melitta and Miele. Signa Holding transferred 11.5 percent to two Swiss stock corporations called Eugster/Frismag AG and AE Familienholding AG. Until now they were represented in trust by Benko.