Benko files for bankruptcy: German subsidiary of Signa Prime goes bankrupt

class = “sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

This affects Signa Prime Selection’s German subsidiary, where company founder Rene Benko has amassed existing valuable holdings. Austrian press agency APA later sought clarification from Signa and the office of Signa’s innovator, Arndt Geiwitz. However, no official information came in the short term.

Media reports had already shown that the financial situation of Tyrolean investor René Benko’s Signa Group had clearly deteriorated further. The German news magazine “Spiegel”, citing insiders, reported online that the situation at Signa Holding and its subsidiaries Prime and Development is “so critical” that “bankruptcy applications are being prepared” – the first application was filed on Friday afternoon. wrote the magazine.

Before the first bankruptcy was announced in the Signa Empire, which has not yet been officially confirmed, a Signa spokesperson told Spiegel and News that there was nothing new and that discussions with potential financing partners were ongoing.

Signa remains resolutely silent

According to the Austrian news magazine “News” (online edition), the motivation of Signa’s current joint shareholders and investors should be limited to providing fresh money to the complex group of companies. Many were dissatisfied with company founder Benko’s failure to respond to demands to withdraw from Signa altogether and transfer voting rights to German reorganizer Arndt Geiwitz.

According to the German newspaper “WirtschaftsWoche” (online), the supervisory board of Signa Prime Selection is currently discussing the next steps. Signa did not initially respond to a written APA request.

500 million by the end of the year

Austria’s “Der Standard” (online) also wrote that some kind of staff meeting is planned for Tuesday at Signa, where information will be given about the financial situation and the steps to be taken. As previously mentioned, the 200 million Euro Signa bond is due to be paid at the end of November, according to the German newspaper “Handelsblatt”. According to “News” and “Spiegel” news, Signa Group needs to collect 500 million euros by the end of the year to avoid bankruptcy.

The construction site of the large Signa Elbtower project in Hamburg has been at a standstill for a month due to unpaid bills. «Construction work on the Elbtower is still stopped. We are currently assuming that these will not continue next week,” affected construction company Lupp said in response to APA’s request. We are awaiting input from investors on how to proceed.

What is the role of Bank Julius Baer?

René Benko’s case also made headlines in Switzerland. It is estimated that Julius Baer Bank gave a large loan to Signa Holding. Julius Baer shares have been under some pressure on the stock market in recent days.

Benko is also co-owner of the traditional Globus store in Switzerland. Globus Group and its real estate are owned equally by Signa and Central Group. For this reason, the Central Group of the Thai Chirathivat family announced that it had made a verbal commitment to Globus to strengthen the back of the store.

Source :Blick