Banko: Creditors want €2.4 billion from Signa founder

Several other creditors have filed claims totalling €400 million in the bankruptcy proceedings of Signa founder René Bencou. Only a small proportion have been identified.

In the bankruptcy proceedings concerning the assets of Signa founder René Benko and against him as a businessman, a follow-up review meeting was held on Wednesday at the Innsbruck regional court. Liquidator Andreas Grabenfeger told reporters afterwards that a further 400 million euros had been confirmed in subsequent creditors' claims. However: only a small proportion of this amount, i.e. 34,000 euros, had been recognised.

The latest request was made by the tax office. This means that the total amount of recognised claims remains at around €47 million at the moment. The latter was determined at the first examination meeting at the end of April. Even then, recognised claims represented only a relatively small part, with creditors claiming around €2 billion.

The seven newly registered disputed claims concern national and international investors in the Signa Group, explained Klaus Schaller, Chairman of the Credit Protection Association KSV1870 in Tyrol. However, there is a possibility that the amount of the specified liabilities will change significantly during the course of the insolvency proceedings. This means that creditors whose claims were disputed at the audit meetings will have the opportunity to request that their claims be determined in a separate civil procedure. At the same time, however, such a separate determination procedure is associated with significant litigation risks.

The process may take years.

Meanwhile, the liquidation of assets in the bankruptcy proceedings was also underway. Specifically: The insolvency administrator is selling off Benko's “movable assets”. According to the KSV, these include watches, a sports boat and a jet ski. It will also be checked whether the rights to various brands owned by the Tyrolean businessman are valuable and can therefore be sold. As Grabenfeger explained after the audit meeting, all of this is likely to result in revenues of “only” a few hundred thousand euros, at least not millions. In any case, the bankruptcy proceedings will drag on for a long time. KSV leader Schaller has been in charge for “many years”.

Incidentally, Benko, who currently works for a firm within the Laura Private Foundation Group, was not physically present at the brief hearing in his hometown on Wednesday. Unlike the first examination meeting in April. (APA)