INNSBRUCK (dpa-AFX) - Following the series of insolvencies at Signa, the founder of the real estate and retail group has now also declared himself insolvent. René Benko has filed for insolvency at the Innsbruck Regional Court, a court spokeswoman confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Thursday. A judge is expected to decide on the 46-year-old entrepreneur's application in the coming days, she said. The "Kronen Zeitung" had previously reported on this.

Without a high school diploma to self-made billionaire: this was the short version of the real estate and trading tycoon's rise to fame until Benko lost his billionaire status at the beginning of December. Born in Innsbruck in 1977, Benko began renovating attics as a teenager. He left business school without a degree and entered the real estate business. In 2004, the then 26-year-old made headlines with the purchase of an Innsbruck department store, which was subsequently redesigned as a shopping center by British star architect David Chipperfield.

Benko succeeded in bringing financially strong supporters on board - such as logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne, management consultant Roland Berger and Torsten Toeller, the founder of Fressnapf pet stores. "It's quite simple. Investors are interested in earning a decent return on the money they invest," said former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, who held various advisory and supervisory positions in the Signa Group. "The investors have always earned well," Gusenbauer told the ORF broadcaster.

Benko wanted to develop much more than real estate. "Signa should be a family-owned European industrial and investment holding company. Similar to the family holding companies of the Agnellis, Oetkers or Reimanns," he told the Austrian magazine "Trend" in 2018. The Italian car manufacturer family Agnelli (Stellantis), the Oetkers with their food and beverage companies and the beverage dynasty Reimann (Jacobs) are not only active in their core businesses, but in several sectors.

Like the Agnellis, Benko also invested in media, and like the Oetkers, he also invested in hotels. He also invested in the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group and in online retailing of sporting goods. Today, the Galeria Group is insolvent again, as is the sports division. The media holdings are about to be sold. Benko's prestigious investments also include the Elbtower project in Hamburg, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and the Chrysler Building in New York.

The current triggers of the Signa crisis are interest rates, energy prices and construction costs, which have risen sharply in the wake of the war in Ukraine. However, there were already signs of potential problems earlier. "I left Signa as a shareholder in 2016 because the figures I was presented with did not match what Benko told us in meetings," former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking told Handelsblatt. In addition, there was a lack of transparency in the barely transparent Signa company network with hundreds of sub-companies.

Until a few months ago, Benko was considered one of the richest Austrians. According to the US magazine "Forbes", Benko's value had reached a high of 6 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) in 2023. However, at the beginning of December, Forbes removed him from its international billionaires list in light of Signa's growing problems.

Now Benko has filed for insolvency as an entrepreneur. In contrast to a private insolvency, he can therefore go through a restructuring process that is similar to that of a company. The Republic of Austria had previously filed an insolvency petition against him at the Innsbruck Regional Court. Among other things, this concerned a subsidy that Benko had announced for the insolvent holding company of the Signa Group, which had not yet been paid in full.

"I think this is actually the most exciting insolvency in the entire Signa complex," said Gerhard Weinhofer from the credit agency Creditreform in Vienna. "Where is the money? Why is it illiquid?" said the expert about the events. The media had recently written several times about money transfers in which Benko's private foundations played a role.

Benko has not yet commented publicly on the financial claims against him or on the Signa crisis. He would have the opportunity to do so at the beginning of April. He has been summoned to a parliamentary committee of inquiry, which is investigating the possible preferential treatment of politically well-connected major entrepreneurs by the authorities./al/DP/nas