René Benko’s Signa-Holding has filed for bankruptcy and withdrawn its restructuring plan. However, the important subsidiaries are sticking to their restructuring plans.
The parent Signa Holding of the Austrian real estate entrepreneur René Benko has withdrawn its application for restructuring and instead filed for bankruptcy at the Vienna Commercial Court. The insolvency administrator Christof Stapf announced this today. Signa Holding owned the Galeria department store chain in Germany, which was sold to a consortium on Tuesday.
According to Stapf, a minimum quota for servicing creditors’ claims will no longer be required. This was justified by the fact that the restructuring concept was based primarily on the value-preserving restructuring of the important investment companies – in particular Signa Prime and Signa Development.
Filed for bankruptcy in November
Signa Holding filed for bankruptcy at the end of November. The main shareholder is the Benko family through their private foundation and Supraholding GmbH. The building contractor and former Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiner, Fressnapf founder Torsten Toeller, the Swiss manager Ernst Tanner, who runs the chocolate manufacturer Lindt&Sprünglli, and the coffee machine entrepreneur Arthur Eugster also hold shares.
After strong growth in the low interest rate phase, Benko’s empire got into extreme difficulties due to higher interest rates, home-made problems, higher construction costs and higher energy prices. In the insolvency proceedings of Signa Holding GmbH, the creditors had registered a total of 8.6 billion euros in claims. However, Stapf spoke of an “inflating” of the claim amount. It remains to be seen whether the creditors will receive part of their claims back.
With none worth mentioning Participation values to be expected
According to Austrian press reports, the holding’s assets consist primarily of shares in the two subsidiaries Signa Prime and Signa Development. But the two companies are themselves in insolvency proceedings; Their creditors had each adopted a restructuring plan in March, according to which they would receive 30 percent of the portion of the claim they had registered after the proceedings had been completed.
The shareholders of Signa Prime and Signa Development approved this yesterday. It then became apparent that Signa Holding would enter bankruptcy proceedings. “Signa Holding as a shareholder would only participate in the proceeds in fourth place,” explained insolvency administrator Stapf. “Signa Holding is therefore no longer expected to have any significant investment values from its investments in Signa Prime and Signa Development.”