Signa expanded strongly during the period of low interest rates – and plunged into crisis due to rising interest rates and construction costs. The group’s portfolio includes, among others, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.
The Austrian Financial Procuratorate is convinced that the restructuring plan for ex-billionaire René Benko’s insolvent Signa Group is the wrong approach. The promised quota of 30 percent for creditors can only be achieved if there is a “striking market recovery” in real estate, said the President of the Finanzprokuratur, Wolfgang Peschorn, to the Association of Foreign Press in Vienna.
He maintains that bankruptcy would have been the cleaner solution, said Peschorn. Such a break-up under the direction of an insolvency administrator would also have had the aim of making the best possible use of the existing assets and, on top of that, would have guaranteed that those previously responsible for the disastrous development at the Signa Group would definitely no longer have any say.
Peschorn, who represents the legal interests of the republic as head of the financial prosecutor, complained about a very limited willingness to provide information on almost all sides. “There is a lack of enthusiasm when it comes to coming to terms with the circumstances.” It should be questioned on the basis of which specific considerations a restructuring plan was approved in which there was not even money for the insolvency administrator’s salary at the time of the decision, said Peschorn, who was also Interior Minister from 2019 to the beginning of 2020. Even the recently promised mass loan for Signa worth tens of millions of euros does not change anything fundamental in the handling of the largest economic bankruptcy in Austria’s history.
“I would sleep very restlessly”
According to Peschorn, things could get legally tight for Signa founder Benko. “I would sleep very restlessly,” said the “Lawyer of the Republic,” referring to the former real estate tycoon. There are currently “numerous indications of criminal offenses” surrounding the spectacular decline of the Signa Group. Benko was described by investors as a “de facto managing director” and was therefore probably the driving force behind the transactions.
Processing the case, including critically questioning the role of supervisory boards, would be very important for Austria and also for Germany – if only to make a contribution to hygiene, said Peschorn. “If this isn’t dealt with, you have to ask yourself, what else is going on and why do we have legally regulated responsibilities?”
Source: Stern
