As of: March 7, 2024, 2:56 p.m
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René Benko, head of the Austrian group Signa.
© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
Bankruptcies within the Signa real estate and trading group have been increasing for months.
This now also has consequences for the founder of the complex company network.
Innsbruck - The Austrian investor René Benko has filed for bankruptcy as an entrepreneur.
A spokeswoman for the Innsbruck regional court confirmed this to the German Press Agency after the “Kronen Zeitung” reported on it.
The judge is expected to decide in the coming days on the application by the entrepreneur, who founded the real estate and trading group Signa, said the spokeswoman.
Reports that Benko had filed for so-called personal bankruptcy were incorrect, she emphasized.
The legal representation of the Republic of Austria had previously filed an application for insolvency against 46-year-old Benko at the regional court.
Among other things, this involved a subsidy that Benko had announced for the insolvent holding company of the Signa Group, which had not yet been fully paid.
Until a few months ago, Benko was considered one of the richest Austrians.
According to the US magazine Forbes, Benko's value reached a high of $6 billion (5.5 billion euros) in 2023.
But in early December, Forbes removed him from its international billionaire list in light of Signa's growing problems.
Fairytale rise to real estate tycoon
Benko's nested company structure includes, among others, the Elbtower project in Hamburg, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and the also insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.
Benko had never publicly commented on Signa's demise in recent months.
As a 17-year-old, Benko was already earning good money by converting attics in his hometown of Innsbruck.
This was later followed by a fairytale rise to become a real estate tycoon, becoming super-rich with skyscrapers, shopping centers and other buildings in prime locations.
Signa had expanded significantly during the low interest rate phase of the past few years.
As interest rates, energy prices and construction costs rose, the group slipped into crisis.
dpa