Getty Images / picture alliance, Javier Ghersi, traffic_analyzer
René Benko isn’t giving up these days. The Signa founder is said to be currently in Innsbruck, Austria, and is still looking for investors from morning to night to inject millions of dollars into his imploding real estate and trading group. This is reported independently by several people who are close to the billionaire.
The search for new investors may be difficult, as more and more of the billionaire’s secret transactions at Signa Holding are slowly coming to light, which does not shed a good light on Benko’s dealings with investors. Our research shows that last year the Austrian billionaire is said to have paid out a dividend to billionaire Klaus Michael Kühne and the RAG-Stiftung via Signa Prime for 2022. The RAG-Stiftung holds five percent of Signa Prime, which Kühne -Holding holds ten percent.
The distribution is expected to be in the high double-digit million range. Explosive: The dividend is said to have only gone to these two addresses, not to other partners and shareholders of Signa Prime. There was also no dividend for Signa Holding shareholders that year. The shareholders had no knowledge of the secret distribution until recently.
Kühne is said to have exerted pressure
The dividend distribution is said to have taken place under pressure from Kühne. It came at a time when the business prospects for Signa Holding and its subsidiaries have become very bleak. At the beginning of last year, the European Central Bank questioned the commitment of major European banks to Signa and recommended that they provide more risk provisions. In doing so, the ECB sent a signal to the financial market that it should no longer trust the valuations of Signa properties.