Signa founder is bankrupt: Benko’s assets in focus
Published: Friday, Mar 8th 2024, 14:00
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The former Austrian billionaire René Benko is bankrupt. The Innsbruck District Court opened insolvency proceedings on Friday, according to a court spokesperson. This means that the entire private assets of the man who built up the Signa real estate and retail group, which was affected by insolvency, can be liquidated.
Last year, the US magazine "Forbes" valued Benko's wealth at 6 billion dollars. Forbes has since removed him from the global list of billionaires. At present, it is not possible to estimate how much of the assets are still left, said insolvency expert Klaus Schaller from the creditors' association KSV 1870 to the news agency DPA. This will now be put on the table in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Mutual claims?
"The question of whether and, if so, which reciprocal claims to Signa companies exist will be particularly exciting," says Schaller. There is also the question of whether assets in Benko's private sphere have been shifted. So far, the entrepreneur has remained silent about the Signa crisis and his role in the decline of the convoluted company network.
Benko is known for his glamorous lifestyle with a lavish villa in Innsbruck, a large chalet in a luxury ski resort on the Arlberg and a private jet. However, these luxury goods are not owned by Benko, but by companies associated with Benko's private foundations and Signa companies. The assets of the foundations cannot be accessed directly to settle Benko's debts. However, the bankruptcy trustee can scrutinize Benko's transactions of recent years and reverse them if creditors have been disadvantaged by these transactions, said Schaller.
Tax debts of 2 million euros
So far, Austrian tax authorities have demanded that Benko pay tax debts of just under two million euros, dpa has learned. However, the claims against the entrepreneur could be considerably higher. For example, the state fund Mubadala in Abu Dhabi is trying to collect 713 million euros from Benko and Signa companies.
Although Benko no longer held any official management positions at Signa, he did have consultancy contracts with individual sub-companies of the group. After these contracts were terminated in the course of the group's crisis, Benko currently does not have sufficient current income to settle the claims, as dpa has learned.
Signa had expanded strongly during the low-interest phase and plunged into crisis due to rising interest rates and construction costs. The portfolio of the convoluted group of companies also includes a stake in the Swiss department store group Globus and, in Germany, the insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and the Elbtower in Hamburg.
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