Signa Holding GmbH (stylized SIGNA) is Austria's largest privately owned real estate company. Signa Holding GmbH announced insolvency proceedings at the end of November 2023. The company will apply for self-administration and restructuring in Vienna's Commercial Court.[1]
Signa was founded in 2000 by the Tyrolean entrepreneur René Benko. Over the years, it has become a pan-European real estate group with more than 150 employees and offices in Vienna, Innsbruck, Munich, Düsseldorf, Luxembourg, Zurich, Bolzano, Berlin and Hamburg. The principal focus of the group is long-term investment in real estate in prime city centre locations. The firm has also became the biggest owner of malls in Central Europe with over 46,000 employees.[2]
Structure
In 2013, Signa extended its activities on merchandising by acquiring majority stakes in the German sporting goods specialist Karstadt sports and in Karstadt Premium. In the summer of 2014, Signa took over Karstadt Warenhaus.
Since 2013 Signa operates in two independent business segments. In 2018 a third segment with "Signa Media" was added.
The group of companies covers real estate assets worth more than 14 billion euros. The current development volume is about 8 billion euros. The Signa Group is not only active in its core markets of Austria and Germany but also in Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Czech Republic. In an interview in February 2020 René Benko talked about total assets of 25 billion Euro.
Corporate structure and management
The principal shareholder of Signa Holding is the Familie Benko Privatstiftung which holds 85% of all company shares. Ernst Tanner, the manager of Lindt & Sprüngli, holds another 10% of shares. The final 5% are owned by Torsten Töller, manager of Fressnapf. The Greek ship owner George Economou exited the company in 2015.
The management of Signa Holding GmbH is the responsibility of the two CEOs Christoph Stadlhuber and Marcus Mühlberger. Since the beginning of 2013 the operational and strategic management of the Signa Group has been the responsibility of the Group Executive Board (GEB) whose five members are the CEOs of the core areas and the Group CFO. The GEB deals not only with the operations of the individual core areas but also with cross-company matters including group strategy and coordination as well as fundraising.[4]
Advisory board of Signa Holding
The advisory board does not have an official corporate law function, but it is considered the body that determines the strategic lines in Signa. The chairman of this advisory board: company founder René Benko. The members: Alfred Gusenbauer
History
The Signa Holding was founded in the year 2000 and emerged from the previous company Immofinna from René Benko. In the modest beginnings the company focused on renovating lofts. In 2001 Karl Kovarik joined the company and the first office in Vienna was opened. In 2004 the construction of the shopping mall Kaufhaus Tyrol started. In the following years offices in Munich, Zürich and Luxembourg opened. In this time also large property, like the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt, were added to the portfolio.
Since 2012: The Karstadt takeover
Karstadt Premium GmbH, Karstadt Sports GmbH and Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH and their sub-divisions were taken over in a series of steps. At the end of December 2012 a portfolio of 17 Karstadt department stores including the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin was acquired by Signa Prime Selection AG for a sum of over 1.1 billion euros. The transaction was by far the largest retail real estate investment in Germany in 2012. On 16 September 2013 it was disclosed that Signa, together with the BSG Group, had taken over 75.1% of the operative business of Karstadt-Premium-GmbH and 75.1% of the operative business of Karstadt-Sports-GmbH from the Berggruen Holding of the German-American businessman Nicolas Berggruen for 300 million euros. This sum was to be spent on the strengthening of the Karstadt Group and the modernisation of individual stores with the aim of guaranteeing Karstadt's long-term competitiveness. In November 2013 Signa passed on half of its shares – that is to say 37.55% - in Karstadt Premium and the sports shops, to the Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz. Karstadt Premium operates the three luxury department stores Kaufhaus des Westens in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich.
Signa bankruptcies in 2023
In November 2023, Signa Holding's shareholders and lenders confirmed that Benko would step down from the board of directors. Signa Prime Selection GmbH was placed in receivership following an insurmountable liquidity crisis: an extraordinary debt charge of 10.3 billion euros as well as the impossibility of honoring all its loans and debt as of November 2023.[15] Most assets belonging to Signa have subsequently been sold or have entered receivership; these include Signa Sport United in the US and Kaufhof in Germany and Austria. Hamburg's immense Elbtower, still under construction, is currently being auctioned to various lending institutions. Benko himself is now under investigation in Austria, Germany and Italy for fraudulent bankruptcy and money laundering.[16]
In December 2023, the subsidiary Signa Prime also went bankrupt. Der Spiegel reported on 8 December 2023 that Signa's management was preparing for self-administration insolvency, citing insiders.[17] This included Signa's most exclusive properties, including well-known buildings such as Berlin's KaDeWe and Vienna's Goldene Quartier. The 800-foot-high Elbtower in Hamburg is also part of Signa Prime Selection AG.
Business segments
Signa Real Estate
Takeover of BAI
At the beginning of January 2017, Signa Real Estate announced that it was taking over the renowned Viennese developer BAI Bauträger Austria Immobilien GmbH. BAI Bauträger Austria Immobilien GmbH is a property developer with a current investment volume of around €1.7 billion, a portfolio of currently 18 projects and a project development volume of more than 440,000 m². As part of the BAI Group, its own service companies for project development and property development (BAI), brokers (BAReal) and a property management company (Donath) are also being acquired and continued by the new owners. The declared future goal for the BAI under the new ownership is to become an independent developer of affordable housing in Vienna.
Sale of large office projects in Austria
In the summer of 2017, the Signa project The Icon Vienna was sold to the new Vienna Central Station as part of a forward deal to Allianz. At the beginning of October, the first three components of the office project Austria Campus were sold to PGIM Real Estate. With a volume of over 500 million euros, the deal was the largest real estate transaction of 2017 and the largest office real estate transaction in Austria by that time.[21]
Miscellaneous
On 13 May 2013 it was disclosed that Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiner had - via his private family trust - taken a share in Signa Prime Selection AG. The prominent business figures who hold shares in Signa Prime include Roland Berger, Wendelin Wiedeking, Ernst Tanner, Harti Weirather and Torsten Toeller.
In January 2024, the list of Benko's creditors also included numerous Volksbanks, Raiffeisenbanks, savings banks, Private banks and insurance companies.[26]
External links
References
- Signa Holding meldet Insolvenz an faz.net, 29 November 2023, retrieved 29 November 2023^
- Wir glauben an die City Interview with René Benko in the magazine Bilanz on 27 February^
- Funke Mediengruppe and SIGNA establish partnership for joint investment in "Krone" and "Kurier"