Former SPÖ Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, as chairman of the supervisory board and highly paid advisor to the most important companies in Rene Benko’s ailing Signa Group, has, from his own perspective, made no mistakes in his duties. In an Ö1 interview on Saturday, he preferred to question the role of the ECB. A mistake made by Signa was to expand into retail. He also advised on how to get out of this area and helped to set up financial resources.
But Kika/Leiner went bankrupt shortly following it was sold by Signa. And Signa Sports and Karstadt in Germany are also bankrupt. The same applies in particular to the largest Signa real estate companies.
However, the properties were always properly valued, which was also properly checked by several bodies, said Gusenbauer on ORF radio Ö1’s “Mittagsjournal”. He assumes that the supervisory board was always properly informed regarding this.
I mightn’t do more than ask
In view of the missing balance sheets, the supervisory board asked the board of directors to stop this practice, as the law requires the balance sheets to be entered into the commercial register in a timely manner. However, the supervisory board, which Gusenbauer chairs, was unable to do more than ask. In addition, balance sheets were always made public at the general meeting, emphasized Gusenbauer.
The ex-politician, who resigned from his position as head of the Strabag supervisory board because the discussion regarding the difficulties of Signa companies might cause reputational damage to the construction company, emphasized that he was not guilty of any criminal offenses. He paid all his income properly in this country. “I stand by that too.”
No comment on fees
Gusenbauer did not want to comment in more detail on the immense sums rumored for his activities in the radio interview. As reported, Gusenbauer wants to remain a member of the SPÖ, which is leading to certain tensions among the Social Democrats, as some party colleagues want him to be kicked out.
Gusenbauer said Benko was just as responsible for Signa’s current decline as he was for its great rise. The Signa maker will also inject the necessary capital to save what needs to be saved. This will be done to the same extent as the other investors would do.
Corona, war and inflation
Corona, the war in Ukraine and inflation led to the bankruptcies. Then the ECB increased interest rates by 4 percent within a year. “The basis changes,” said Gusenbauer. There was also the “mistake” of concentrating on trading in addition to real estate “because you thought you might do it better.” “A lot of money was sunk in the trading sector, which is now missing as necessary liquidity for real estate.”
“I believe that entering the trade was a mistake,” said Gusenbauer. As far as he knows, the bankruptcy of Signa Sports alone “cost 800 million in cash”.
Gusenbauer gives the European Central Bank a certain share of responsibility for the Signa bankruptcies. “In my opinion, the behavior of focusing on one company in a real estate crisis does not correspond to their regulatory task and certainly did not help to overcome the crisis,” complained the ex-politician. Starting last August, following appropriate checks, the ECB urged banks to write off some of their loans to Signa.
