Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
On https://www.signa.at/de/ in the afternoon and evening there were only email press contacts and the legal notice. The “Kurier” wrote, citing a spokesman, about “maintenance work”. According to media reports, the group’s first German real estate subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
“We are carrying out maintenance work on the homepage over the weekend,” said Signa spokesman Robert Leingruber, according to an online report from “Kurier”. The real estate and trading group, where, according to media reports, a German real estate subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on Friday, continued to leave APA inquiries unanswered. There was also no reaction from the office of Signa renovator Arndt Geiwitz.
A renovation of the homepage can indicate a restructuring of the company, which, according to those in the know, urgently needs hundreds of millions of euros to prevent the worst. Construction freezes on prestigious properties in German cities underline the fact that the situation is difficult. With around 1,000 companies, the company is considered extremely opaque.
“If no white smoke rises at the weekend, then things will be tight,” the German “FAZ” (Saturday) quoted an insider. At the weekend, “Der Standard” once again reported on unclear ownership and rental arrangements for a Signa luxury property on Lake Garda in Northern Italy, which Benko is said to be using privately.
However, according to “FAZ”, it is unclear whether the first bankruptcy case of Signa Real Estate Germany GmbH on Friday – about which “Spiegel” and “News” reported, but which the company left uncommented on – will trigger a domino effect. not sure. “Insolvency doesn’t mean bankruptcy like it used to,” said one person involved, according to the paper, in response to the bankruptcy filing. Negotiations for fresh money will still continue, there will be another player in the form of an insolvency administrator and the developers of currently dormant projects, which are jointly associated with Signa, have no interest in everything being put on hold; on the contrary, they want to complete the projects.
The hope in the Benko empire now apparently rests on a mezzanine investor, according to several media reports in the past few days. This would provide a loan of 500, perhaps even 600 million euros, some of which could be secured, but some of which are also unsecured. This means that extremely high interest rates are due. Together with additional fees, loan costs can exceed 20 percent per year.
This also makes it clear that Signa could, above all, gain time with such an investor to enable systematic restructuring. According to information from the “FAZ” and other unconfirmed reports, an investor who is not one of the previous donors is currently still examining the Signa documents.
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