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Signa logo at a construction site in Vienna
Photo: Helmut Fohringer/dpa
Creditors of subsidiaries of the insolvent Signa Group of the Tyrolean investor René Benko have filed claims worth billions.
According to the restructuring administrator, claims totaling around 6.3 billion euros were made for Signa Prime alone, in which prestigious city center properties are bundled.
The claims have been raised by 219 creditors to date, said restructuring administrator Norbert Abel in Vienna on Monday.
In total, around 2.6 billion euros in liabilities are recognized.
According to the creditor protection association KSV 1870, claims from 171 creditors add up to around 2.2 billion euros for the real estate company Signa Development Selection, which is also part of Benko's crumbling empire.
Signa Prime Selection announced in mid-February that it wanted to sell properties in Vienna and Innsbruck.
The investments included the luxury hotel Park Hyatt, the luxury shopping mile Goldenes Quartier and the Constitutional Court building in Vienna, and the Tyrol department store in Innsbruck.
The sales process is “part of the restructuring concept of Signa Prime Selection AG,” Abel said.
The creditors are scheduled to vote on the restructuring plan on March 18th - then the future of Signa Prime Selection will also be decided.
Signa, which operates in the retail and especially real estate business, suffered the largest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history.
The creditors of the also insolvent Signa Holding alone had registered claims of around 8.6 billion euros.
Signa was the biggest victim of the real estate crisis in Europe so far.
The heavily indebted real estate giant was faced with, among other things, rapidly rising interest rates.
dab/Reuters