This is what “Der Standard” writes in its Tuesday edition. SK Management helped a Signa subsidiary raise 100 million euros from an Arab investor. According to the information, 750,000 of the agreed fee of 2.4 million euros were paid – just before the bankruptcy. When the insolvency administrator attempts to save what can be saved for the creditors, the focus is – in addition to the realization of the real estate – on payment flows that occurred up to six months before the insolvency. Legal challenges are possible here.
According to an initial “rough check”, this applies to 442 payments to 142 potential opponents, according to the administrator’s fifth report to the creditors. 47 of them have already received a letter of demand to repay a total of 91 million euros. One of them – names are not mentioned in the report – has already paid back 150,000 euros. A total of 456 million euros is expected to be brought in this way.
20 lawsuits in preparation
According to the newspaper report, Signa Prime restructuring manager Norbert Abel is currently preparing 20 lawsuits. A case against TPA Steuerberatung GmbH has already been filed at the Vienna Commercial Court. Abel therefore wants to contest 4 million euros and 8 million euros in damages. The TPA had advised Signa for years.
The restructuring administrator wants a total of almost 15 million euros from members of the board of directors and supervisory board, and he wants around 40 million euros from shareholders. This involves bonuses, dividends or loans that may have been paid out when insolvency was already foreseeable.
“pressure to exploit”
According to Abel, there is a certain “pressure to exploit” the existing Signa properties. “Short-term transactions” became necessary that brought in less money than originally planned. Recycling is taking longer, especially in Austria. This applies, for example, to the listed Postal Savings Bank in Vienna, which Signa leased to the Federal Real Estate Company (BIG) four years ago under a 99-year building lease agreement. Here the restructuring manager negotiates with the financier about the exploitation strategy. There is also little movement at the ruins of the planned Lamarr department store on Vienna’s Mariahilfer Straße. The Tyrol department store in Innsbruck will not be put on the market until next year – before that, new tenants will be sought as some of the old ones are insolvent.
The palace in Vienna’s Renngasse, which houses the Constitutional Court (VfGH) and the Bank Austria Art Forum, is expected to be sold this year. According to the information, the rental agreement with the Republic for the VfGH runs until 2062, and that of the Kunstforum until the end of 2024. According to the report, “intensive” negotiations are already underway with this tenant – the rent will “probably be reduced”. There are already initial offers for the nearby downtown hotel Park Hyatt. It should be used in the best possible way in a bidding process.
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