Signa’s debts more than doubled during the first nine months of the year as the property investor struggled to stave off financial collapse.
René Benko’s Signa Holdings, whose €27bn of assets include department store Selfridges and the Chrysler Building, had outstanding liabilities of just under €2bn at the end of 2022, up from €635m the previous year.
By the end of September this year, borrowings had risen to about €5bn, according to the company’s insolvency filing.
The filing, confirmed by Austrian creditors association AKV, also shows a sharp decline in the value of Signa Holding’s assets. At the beginning of this year, the company valued its stakes in subsidiaries at €5.2bn. By September, their book value had fallen to €2.8bn, with a liquidation value of just €314m if the assets had to be sold at short notice.
