Chairs, potted plants, trash cans
Benko’s luxury office furniture is being auctioned off
January 5, 2024, 11:10 a.m
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René Benko’s rise is steep, the fall is deep. After a villa belonging to the real estate entrepreneur known as “Wunderwuzzi” was seized, the furnishings of his company headquarters are now going under the hammer – including designer furniture, potted plants and a plastic trash can.
The deep fall of real estate investor René Benko continues. Furniture from its Vienna headquarters is now being auctioned off online. The entire facility is to be monetized, including several pieces of luxury furniture, reports the Austrian news portal “Heute”. Market value of all items: estimated around 2.1 million euros.
According to the report, Benko’s offices extend over several floors of a stately old building in the heart of Vienna. The starting price for an oval conference table that can easily accommodate more than 20 people is 3,000 euros. A container with desk utensils that starts at 8 euros is suitable for smaller wallets. Or a trash can for 2 euros. In recent weeks, an appraisal report was prepared on site to determine the value of the facility. Benko was present at several appointments “very patiently and cooperatively,” it said.
The entrepreneur was also called “Wunderwuzzi” in Austria because of his busyness. The US magazine Forbes estimated his fortune before the crash at 2.5 billion euros. The Austrian tax authorities recently seized a luxury villa owned by the real estate investor who had been hit by bankruptcies. As can be seen from the land register, the tax office in Vienna has registered a lien worth around 12 million euros for the property in the Igls district of Innsbruck, as the authority believes that sales taxes of this amount are outstanding.
Emergency sales possible
The villa belongs to a company that in turn is owned by a Benko family foundation. The foundation announced that the taxes had been refunded by the tax office in the past and were now being claimed wrongly. The Ministry of Finance, however, said that such refunded taxes become outstanding tax debts again if the tax office comes to the conclusion that a property is not being used commercially. The villa is considered one of Benko’s residences.
After Signa Holding, the parent company, self-administered restructuring proceedings were recently opened at the Vienna Commercial Court for the group’s operational subsidiaries and flagships, Signa Prime and Signa Development. Signa Prime includes the most important properties, including the KaDeWe in Berlin, the Alsterhaus in Hamburg, the Oberpollinger in Munich as well as the “Elbtower” under construction in Hamburg and the “Lamarr” department store in Vienna. The creditors’ claims should be satisfied to 30 percent. For the restructuring plan to be accepted, the majority of creditors must agree.
The Signa bankruptcy is the largest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history. The real estate giant is struggling, among other things, with rising interest rates and construction costs as well as transactions on the real estate market that have almost come to a standstill. Overall, the insolvent group’s liabilities currently amount to over eleven billion euros. If the restructuring plan fails, there could be emergency sales of properties in prime locations in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.