Globus co-owner René Benko to withdraw from Signa
Published: Friday, Nov 3rd 2023, 14:20
Updated At: Saturday, Nov 4th 2023, 00:54
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Austrian investor Rene 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 chief representative, Signa shareholder Hans-Peter Haselsteiner told "Ö1-Mittagsjournal" on Friday. "The shareholders have taken note of this step approvingly and positively."
Signa could not be reached for comment at short notice when asked by APA.
Several shareholders, including Lindt President Ernst Tanner in addition to Haselsteiner according to Handelsblatt, had written to Benko personally asking him to withdraw from the advisory board of Signa Holding and transfer his voting rights in trust. "Benko responded positively to this request," said Haselsteiner.
For his part, Benko now wanted to know "whether the shareholders would also be prepared to make a contribution to the restructuring of the group with such an extensive solution", Haselsteiner added. Although the investor was basically on course and had agreed to the shareholders' demands, "but not yet in full". Talks are still ongoing and, according to Haselsteiner, a solution could be found over the coming weekend.
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.
Globus takeover by Thais as an option
The Swiss department store chain Globus would also be affected by a possible collapse of the Benko empire. Half of it is owned by Signa. Possible scenarios for the future of Globus are therefore now being played out in the media.
One of these would be the takeover of Globus by the Thai Central Group, which currently 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, 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 take over, it will be even more difficult to separate 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 such illustrious department stores as Kadewe in Germany and Selfridges in the UK. The newspaper 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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