Selfridges Owner Benko to Give Up Control of €23 Billion Empire

Signa Holding GmbH founder Rene Benko is able to hand over management to a restructuring skilled, based on Hans Peter Haselsteiner, a shareholder within the firm that co-owns London’s Selfridges shops and New York’s Chrysler Constructing.

The transfer could be short-term and is contingent on shareholders agreeing to fund the conglomerate’s turnaround, Haselsteiner stated by cellphone on Friday.

Shareholders referred to as on Benko earlier this week to cede his function as chairman of Signa’s advisory board and to surrender his voting rights to German insolvency skilled Arndt Geiwitz.

His departure would imply the tip of an period for the corporate, which has lengthy drawn questions on its exponential development and sophisticated dealings, together with with Europe’s most outstanding billionaires.

Now, battered by rising rates of interest, plunging valuations and a money squeeze, a few of these buyers — an inventory that features France’s billionaire Peugeot household, Strabag’s Haselsteiner and German transportation tycoon Klaus-Michael Kuehne — are knocking on the Austrian tycoon’s door.

Signa’s luxurious developer Prime has tapped Rotschild & Co. to advise on debt refinancing. Holders of €300 million in bonds issued by Signa Improvement, a smaller unit, have employed Kirkland & Ellis to advise them on discussions with the corporate.

If accepted, the primary job of Geiwitz could be to plug funding gaps which have halted development work, together with at Signa’s flagship Elbtower undertaking in Hamburg, Germany.

The outstanding restructuring skilled in Germany already led insolvency proceedings for Signa’s Galeria division retailer chain. That course of left taxpayers with a €590 million write-off of Covid-era emergency loans.

By Marton Eder, Libby Cherry, and Giulia Morpurgo

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