The Austrian entrepreneur René Benko has filed for private bankruptcy. His lawyer has that Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed. He is therefore probably insolvent. He submitted the application to the Innsbruck Regional Court, several media outlets previously reported. His lawyer emphasized that Benko had filed the application out of his own motivation. The court must now appoint an insolvency administrator.
The Tyrolean is the founder of the Signa Group, a real estate and trading group that has gotten into financial difficulties. Several companies in this nested corporate structure have already filed for bankruptcy, including the founder himself. From a strict legal perspective, this is not an application for personal bankruptcy, but for private bankruptcy as a sole proprietor, he writes default. But even in this case he is liable with his entire assets; this makes little difference in the practical handling of the insolvency proceedings.
The legal representation of the Republic of Austria had previously filed an application for insolvency against 46-year-old Benko at the regional court. Among other things, this involved a subsidy that Benko had announced for the insolvent holding company of the Signa Group, which had not yet been fully paid.
Until a few months ago he was considered one of the richest Austrians. According to US Magazine Forbes Benko’s fortune reached a peak of six billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) in 2023. But at the beginning of December it was canceled Forbes amid Signa’s growing problems from its international billionaire list.