Signa wants to sell its stake in the Chrysler Building in New York

The Signa Group is in talks to sell its stake in the iconic Chrysler Building in New York. The insolvent holding company must now quickly bring other assets to market.

The liquidation company of the real estate and business group Signa must join the luxury property and investment. As the insolvency administrator of Signa Holding, Christof Stapf, announced today in Vienna, discussions are also ongoing regarding the sale of investments such as the famous Chrysler Building in New York. Signa owns half of the high-rise building. To plug the financial gaps, the holding company has already terminated the leases for its offices in two luxury downtown buildings in Vienna, said Stapf.

The bankruptcy administrator also announced the exploitation of media investments. However, Stapf said he is trying to support the consolidation of Signa’s parent companies that are not directly affected by the bankruptcy. These include the branches of Signa Prime, Signa Development and Signa Retail – for example with the Hamburg Elbtower real estate project or the Galeria shopping group.

Benko’s private jet is for sale

Signa Holding, founded by Austrian entrepreneur René Benko, says it has debts worth five billion euros. Creditors have so far claimed 1.1 billion euros of this as part of the bankruptcy court proceedings.

To ensure the liquidity of the holding company, more than the three million euros that Benko has pledged so far and some that have already been allocated are probably needed. For example, René Benko’s Cessna Citation XLS personal plane will be sold. This emerges from the information from the maintenance manager.

Organization chart on 46 pages A3

Signa Holding had grown significantly during the years of low interest rates. But rising interest rates, high construction costs and falling real estate prices have put the group in trouble. The company is also not very transparent: the holding company has an indirect stake in hundreds of companies. According to Stapf, the organization chart alone fills 46 pages in A3 format.

In the complex company structure of the Signa Group there is a “lack of management capacity and deep knowledge”. The holding company has also “only recently fulfilled its regulatory function,” criticized Stapf.