Globus co-owner René Benko apparently withdraws from Signa
Published: Saturday, Nov 4th 2023, 14:01
Updated At: Sunday, Nov 5th 2023, 00:53
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Austrian investor René Benko is about to step down as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Signa Holding. The real estate and retail company based in Innsbruck and Vienna owns half of the Globus Group in Switzerland.
The German restructuring expert Arndt Geiwitz is to replace Benko as general representative, Signa shareholder Hans-Peter Haselsteiner told "Ö1-Mittagsjournal" on Friday. The shareholders had taken note of this step approvingly and positively. Signa did not respond to media inquiries.
Benko has no operational function on paper, but holds direct and indirect shares in the group via foundations. The managing directors of Signa Holding are Marcus Mühlberger and Christoph Stadlhuber.
According to the ARD program "Wirtschaft vor acht", Signa's current debts amount to 2 billion euros. 1.3 billion of this is still to be serviced this year, according to various media reports.
There were problems with real estate projects in Germany: For example, the construction of the Elbtower in Hamburg was apparently halted due to payment difficulties at Signa Prime.
Globus takeover by Thais
The Swiss department store chain Globus would also be affected by the collapse of the Benko empire. Half of it is owned by Signa. Possible scenarios for the future of Globus are now being played out in the media.
One such option would be the takeover of Globus by the Thai Central Group, which already owns the other half and has already acquired the Kadewe Group from Benko, among others. The Thais are "reportedly" leaning towards a complete takeover of Globus, as the "Handelszeitung" reported on Friday. This would cost the Central Group "less than 1 billion Swiss francs".
And the Thais probably wanted to complete a possible purchase quickly, the article continued. Because once the banks took over the sceptre, it would be even more difficult to remove the Globus stake from Benko's convoluted corporate empire.
As a second scenario, the "Handelszeitung" mentions the purchase of all of Benko's Signa Group's European department store holdings. These include Kadewe in Germany and Selfridges in the UK. The paper estimates the cost of this deal at "several billion".
Nested empire
No matter how: A takeover would be difficult anyway - due to the extremely complicated, convoluted company structure. Who owns what in Benko's empire is "only apparent at second glance".
Austrian real estate mogul Benko took over half of Globus in 2020 under his Signa together with the Central Group. The deal included both the department store activities and eight Globus properties in prime locations.
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