The collapse of investor René Benko’s Austrian Signa Group, as a result of which the department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has already filed for bankruptcy, is spreading further – this time in Switzerland.
The private bank Julius Baer is affected, which granted large amounts of loans to Signa and now has to write off these loans. As a result, the head of the bank now has to leave. Philipp Rickenbacher is resigning with immediate effect, the Swiss institute announced on Thursday. Until a permanent successor is found, his deputy Nic Dreckmann will take over the management of Julius Baer. It was also said that the bank was making a value adjustment on loans to an unnamed group of companies with a volume of 586 million francs, or around 630 euros. According to insiders, the group of companies is Signa.
The impairment has serious consequences: It will lead to a decline in profits of more than 50 percent at Julius Baer in 2023. The profit is still a good 450 million francs, but analysts had expected 800 million francs.
“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I express my deep regret that the full impairment of the largest exposure in our private debt business has significantly impacted our consolidated profit for 2023,” said Board Chairman Romeo Lacher. In the future, the bank wants to concentrate on lending in more traditional areas.
Signa is the most prominent victim of the real estate crisis in Europe so far. At the end of November, the group filed for bankruptcy after running into liquidity difficulties. The problems resulting from the Signa insolvency for Julias Bär had already become apparent in November. At that time, Bär had announced a value adjustment of 70 million francs on its loan portfolio. Analysts later assumed that this might not be enough. The Zürcher Kantonalbank, for example, estimated the loan loss on this commitment at 400 million francs. The fact that the loans to Signa have to be written off in full comes as a surprise.