Signa Holding’s €5bn debt backed by €250mn collateral, says administrator

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Just €250mn of the €5.26bn of debt owed by the company at the centre of René Benko’s collapsing property empire had been secured against tangible assets, said its administrator, raising fresh questions about how much lenders to the group could expect to recoup. 

Christof Stapf, a Viennese insolvency lawyer, said on Thursday he was taking over the running of Signa Holding after the company’s management failed to put together a viable restructuring plan in the two months since it entered administration. 

Signa Holding was the ultimate parent company in a web of more than 1,000 corporate entities, which together are estimated by analysts to owe in excess of €13bn to creditors. 

It applied for “self-administration” under Austrian law, a procedure by which its management would seek to restructure the company themselves. 

But a lack of clarity about how much the holding company would be able to recoup from its two most important subsidiaries, Signa Prime and Signa Development, complicated the process.

Stapf said he hoped to be able to put together his own restructuring proposal — one that is likely to be less favourable to Signa Holding’s shareholders, including Benko — by April. 

The disclosure of Signa Holding’s collateral position adds to concerns about the exposure of backers, including Swiss banks, German insurers and some of Europe’s most prominent family offices, to a group where Benko maintained opaque finances for many years. 

“All claims are being examined. The [recoverable] amount will depend on the result of negotiations about the restructuring plan,” said Stapf. Less than 5 per cent of the company’s debts were secured, he added. 

The Financial Times revealed on Thursday how one Signa company had transferred more than €300mn to entities connected to the Austrian billionaire’s family before its…