VIENNA (Reuters) -Signa Holding, the insolvent entity at the top of Austrian ex-billionaire Rene Benko’s fallen property empire Signa, faces 8.35 billion euros ($9.8 billion) in claims by creditors, of which it disputes 5.6 billion, its administrator said on Friday.
Signa became the biggest casualty of Europe’s property downturn when parts of the group’s elaborate network of companies filed for insolvency in late 2023.
Benko became a billionaire by rapidly expanding Signa in the era of ultra-low interest rates, but when rates rose sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the group became insolvent.
Benko is in custody and faces trial on suspicion of offences including insolvency fraud. He has denied the allegations.
In his fifth report as administrator, Christof Stapf said Signa Holding recognised 2.8 billion euros of the 8.4 billion in claims made against it by Thursday of this week.
Sales of assets, including an aircraft, the contents of a villa in Italy and intangibles such as trademark rights, had raised 10 million euros, Stapf said in a statement.
Significant steps had also been taken towards selling strategic assets, including a stake in the Chrysler Building in New York and a stake in Austrian tabloid newspaper Kronen Zeitung, he added, without specifying how much they would raise.
Stapf said he believed the company was insolvent by November 2022, roughly a year before it filed for insolvency. He said its operating loss in the year before it filed for insolvency on November 29, 2023 was estimated at around 650 million euros.
($1 = 0.8559 euros)
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; editing by Barbara Lewis)
