Richard Lugner: The Future of Lugner City and €40 Million in Debt

2024-02-15 22:52:58

February 16, 2024

Richard Lugner: €40 million in debt and the future of his business

Recently, 91-year-old Viennese native Richard Lugner was in the spotlight at the Opera Ball accompanied by Hollywood icon Priscilla Presley. Now Lugner revealed less glamorous news in an interview: He is €40 million in debt.

Over the course of his career, which marks Lugner not only as a successful entrepreneur but also as a celebrity, financial ups and downs are not uncommon for him.

After spending large sums of money on celebrity ball guests such as Julia Roberts and Kim Kardashian in the past, Lugner now has to save money. He himself recognizes this: “We will no longer be able to afford a megastar like Julia Roberts in the future,” says Lugner.

As early as 2003, he was on the verge of bankruptcy with debts of €35 million. Today, two decades later, the financial rudder seems to have only been turned around to a limited extent. “If you build and invest a lot, you always need money,” explains Lugner. However, the news hit like a bomb: Lugner’s family is now even selling their luxury cars and switching to used cars, they say. Lugner’s assets currently stand at around €80 million, led by his flagship project Lugner City on the Vienna Belt, whose expansion in 2003 already cost Lugner €28 million.

His current debts catapult Lugner well outside the top 100 richest Austrians. “It is true that we have €40 million in debt. However, we are a successful shopping center that was able to increase sales by 9.94% in the crisis year of 2023 compared to 2022,” said the Viennese. Lugner City is 100% owned by the Lugner-Söhne Foundation, and he shares the management of the company with his two sons and daughter.

Lugner answers the question of how the immense mountain of debt is handled with a reference to compliance with a long-term loan agreement. Despite the financial challenges, his shopping center appears to be continuing to develop profitably and there are already new interested parties: “We are in negotiations with Douglas, Woolworth and MAM – Modern Asia Market, who want to become tenants of Lugner City.”

Photo: Manfred Werner – Tsui

1708039534
#million #debt #consequences