Victorinox loses money due to Benko’s Signa disaster – further losses threaten Iran deports 60,000 Afghans within a month

Now the two most important real estate companies of the Signa Group are also going bankrupt. Signa Prime Selection AG, in which the entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne, who lives in Schwyz, has a major stake, and Signa Development Selection AG will apply for a restructuring procedure on their own behalf at the commercial court in Vienna, just like the group of the That has the fallen Austrian tycoon René Benko announced on Thursday.

The holding company and other companies in the network of companies are already insolvent. It is the largest bankruptcy in Austria’s history. The creditors have registered claims of over one billion euros.

The list of defrauded investors is long and prominent. In addition to Kühne, majority shareholder of the global logistics company Kühne+Nagel based in Schindellegi SZ, many well-known entrepreneurs have invested extensively in Benko’s business empire, including the Peugeot (vehicles) and Rausing (Tetra Pak) families.

“Shareholders would lose 650,000 francs”

A little further down the list is another prominent donor from Switzerland: Victorinox, the world-famous knife manufacturer owned by the Schwyz Elsener entrepreneurial family, and its pension fund is also involved, each with 100,000 shares in Signa Sports United.

The e-commerce platform for sporting goods, which includes well-known online shops such as Bikester.ch, Campz.ch and Tennis-Point.ch, has been in bankruptcy proceedings since the end of October. Meanwhile, countless customers had to worry about the goods they had ordered and already paid for. Also in Switzerland, where consumer protection received numerous complaints. Shipping at the sports retailer is now running relatively smoothly again, but the future of Signa Sports United is highly uncertain.

Investors are also worried about millions here. As U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show, shareholders include sovereign wealth funds, life insurance companies, family offices, high-net-worth individuals and about two dozen companies, including Victorinox.

When asked about the extent of the damage, Carl Elsener, who has run the Schwyz family business since 2007, specifically replied:

However, in the case of the pension fund, there is no fear of write-offs as any loss associated with the Signa investment will be covered by the family.

According to Elsener, the pension fund, with a size of more than 600 million francs and a coverage ratio of about 135 percent, could have borne the loss itself. However, given the circumstances, the family decided to compensate for this themselves. A company spokeswoman had already emphasized in advance that the Signa’s position represents “significantly less than 1 percent of the investment portfolio.” and “the need for write-downs is within the scope of normal portfolio volatility.”

Family sticks to investment strategy

However, it is not the only potential write-off in the Victorinox portfolio. As recent research revealed, the knife manufacturer’s pension fund invested 7.8 million francs in Highlight Event and Entertainment AG, the troubled company of former FC Basel president Bernhard Burgener.

This was due to a huge decline in turnover in the first half of 2023; operating losses doubled. A look at the books also shows that the company is in deep trouble. The debt mountain amounts to approximately 360 million francs, of which 320 million are short-term debts.

When Carl Elsener is asked about this, he is still calm. “For us, who invest very carefully and sustainably, 7.8 million is of course a large amount. However, without collateral we would not have made the investment.” That is why the loan is covered by collateral. In addition, they are still confident that nothing will be lost and that participation will pay off.

Elsener says he does not want to change anything in the investment strategy in the short term. Despite the difficult stock market year, overall it was a good investment year for Victorinox. “This is reflected in our pension fund, which is one of the healthiest in Switzerland.”