As of: February 14, 2024, 1:00 p.m
By: Bona Hyun
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Next big bang about Signa insolvency proceedings?
The Innsbruck regional court is currently dealing with the possible personal insolvency of René Benko.
Innsbruck – Is René Benko privately insolvent?
The Innsbruck regional court has dealt with the personal solvency of the Austrian Signa founder René Benko.
A non-public hearing took place in the absence of the former billionaire.
Filing for insolvency against Benko – the court’s decision is delayed
On Tuesday (February 13th), the day of the hearing, no decision was made, as the court in Benko's hometown announced.
The judge requested further documents by the beginning of March in order to then either initiate personal insolvency proceedings or reject the state's application.
Benko's lawyers had no comment.
The Austrian real estate investor René Benko.
© Marcel Kusch/dpa
The Austrian state is one of the creditors in the ongoing insolvency proceedings within the Signa Group, which includes, among others, the Elbtower project in Hamburg and the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group.
The Republic of Austria had filed for insolvency against the founder of the ailing real estate and trading group.
The Standard
had already reported at the beginning of January 2024
that the Finanzprokuratur, the lawyer for the Republic of Austria, had submitted a Benko insolvency application to the responsible insolvency court at the Innsbruck Regional Court.
According to information from the
Standard,
the application is based, among other things, on the fact that Benko did not fully meet his obligation to make a deposit of a total of three million euros in the Signa Holding restructuring process.
Signa founder René Benko is no longer a billionaire: “seems to be in trouble”
Benko's fortune was estimated
by the US magazine
Forbes in 2023 at around 6 billion dollars (5.6 billion euros).
However, he was removed from the global billionaire list at the end of 2023 when his group of companies plunged into crisis amid rising interest rates, construction costs and energy prices.
In November, Benko slipped from 425th place to 1,105th place due to the crisis at the real estate group Signa Holding.
Within a few months, his assets had shrunk by more than half: from around $6 billion to $2.8 billion.
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Signa Holding filed for bankruptcy at the end of November.
According to Forbes,
it is
the largest bankruptcy in Austrian history to date.
But that is just the beginning.
“The 46-year-old, who built up his portfolio largely with borrowed capital and gained access to Europe's elite through his charm, seems to be getting into a lot of trouble,” writes the US magazine.
Benko's confidants spoke of a “broken man” after the Signa bankruptcy.
Benko's Signa bankruptcy is spreading more and more
The bankruptcy of the Signa Group of the Tyrolean investor Benko is now spreading more and more.
A 100 percent subsidiary of the former flagship and the also already insolvent Signa Prime, Signa Real Estate Management, has applied for insolvency proceedings at the Vienna Commercial Court, announced the creditor protection associations Alpenländischer Kreditorenverband (AKV) and KSV1870.
There are no plans to continue the company, reports
Spiegel
.
(bohy with dpa)