Image: Kika/Leiner
The Signa real estate group of the Tyrolean René Benko sells more than 80 properties of Leiner & Kika Möbelhandels GmbH to the Supernova group of the German specialist retailer Frank Albert. The “Standard” reported on Wednesday evening. The deal was confirmed by business circles. According to “Standard”, the purchase price should be almost 500 million euros.
Five years ago, Benko and his real estate company Signa took over the furniture stores from Kika and Leiner, some of them at very reasonable prices – with the help of the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Even then, the competitor for the purchase of the chain is said to have been Frank Albert, whose international real estate company is based in Graz.
The Tyrolean entrepreneur Benko is apparently struggling with increasing difficulties. Most recently, the “Spiegel” headlined: “Is the Benko bubble bursting?” This year, Benko has already sold almost half of the branches of the German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which became insolvent in October 2022 despite high German state aid. Signa has also sold half of the Berlin luxury shopping center KaDeWe to a Thai retail group – the antitrust authorities still have to approve the deal.
The fact that Signa wants to sell individual Kika/Leiner locations had been around for a long time. In January, “Gewinn” reported that the Signa group had sold three Kika/Leiner properties in Vienna, Linz and Wels to a Hallmann Holding company. In November there was talk of four to 15 locations being offered on the market in Austria. The managing director of the furniture store chains, Reinhold Güterbier, emphasized at the time that all 42 furniture stores would remain.
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