Triple-digit million profit
Investor Benko sells furniture chain Kika/Leiner
06/01/2023, 12:20 p.m
Five years after the takeover, investor and Galeria owner René Benko sells all of Kika/Leiner’s real estate and operational business. According to media reports, he did a good deal with the furniture chain.
The Signa Group of the Tyrolean real estate investor and Galeria owner René Benko has sealed a deal worth millions in Austria. Five years after the group took over the furniture chain Kika/Leiner, they separated again, as Signa announced. The properties of the chain go to the real estate company Supernova Invest of the German investor Frank Albert. The operative business of Kika/Leiner will be taken over by the holding company of the former managing director Hermann Wieser. It was agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
According to a report in the daily newspaper “Die Presse”, Signa received almost as much for the remaining 40 properties of the furniture chain as the investor paid five years ago for the entire group, including the Eastern European business. At that time, a purchase price of 430 million euros was rumored. Signa took over the furniture chain Kika/Leiner from the South African Steinhoff Group in 2018 and, according to its own statements, thus prevented insolvency. Immediately after the takeover, a restructuring course was started and the entire Eastern European business was sold.
Takeover of Kika/Leiner “good investment”
Benko should have earned around 300 million euros with the chain, reported “Die Presse”, citing banking circles. Signa justified the sale with strategic reasons. “The separation of Kika / Leiner was not an easy decision,” said Signa Holding boss Christoph Stadlhuber. Overall, from Signa’s point of view, the takeover of the chain was a “very good investment” despite the difficult market environment.
The real estate industry is currently under pressure. Rising interest rates, skyrocketing construction costs and high inflation are causing problems for housing companies and investors. The companies therefore keep their money together or try to raise funds by selling real estate.
According to its own information, Supernova has implemented more than 145 projects since it was founded in 1994. In 2015, the company acquired 56 locations of the ailing DIY store chain bauMax in Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia for EUR 300 million. A large part of it was rented out to the DIY chain Obi. In addition, Supernova runs shopping centers and retail parks in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania.
Benko is no stranger to Germany either – Signa owns the department store giant Galeria and numerous properties. The department store chain that Benko had forged from Karstadt and Kaufhof had recently slipped into difficulties again despite public aid, and the insolvency proceedings ended recently. More than 40 of the once almost 130 department stores had to close their doors, and numerous jobs were eliminated.