In connection with the sale of the Globus Group, Migros companies granted large loans to the Signa Group. (Archive image) KEYSTONE/ALESSANDRO DELLA BELLA sda-ats
This content was published on January 18, 2024 – 4:29 p.m. January 18, 2024 – 4:29 p.m
(Keystone-SDA)
The Migros Genossenschafts-Bund (MGB) and Migros Bank have large loans outstanding from the troubled Austrian real estate group Signa. After several cantonal banks, the Migros companies have now also quantified the size of their commitments.
Migros announced on Thursday that the MGB granted a loan of 125 million francs when the Globus department store chain was sold to a joint venture between Signa and the Thai Central Group in 2020. This loan was made directly to Globus and not to the two new owners. It is “partially backed by guarantees.”
Secured with property
For its part, Migros Bank is involved in a syndicated loan from several Swiss banks with 97 million francs. The loan was granted to a real estate company in which several investors were involved, according to a separate communiqué from the Migros banking subsidiary. However, the name of the borrower is not explicitly mentioned in this notice.
The mortgage is “primarily secured by a mortgage,” emphasizes Migros Bank. It is a department store property that is located in a “prime location in Zurich city center”. The building is rented and all interest and amortization payments have been “reliably paid.”
Reactions to media reports
With the publications, the companies in the Migros Group responded to media reports of the past few days in which various creditors of the Signa Group were named. According to the information, Migros Bank has now received the lifting of banking secrecy for this matter.
In the past few days, the Obwaldner Kantonalbank (OKB) and the Walliser Kantonalbank (WKB) had already confirmed their commitment to a group of investors in the real estate sector that had run into difficulties. Both OKB and WKB estimated their commitment to the mortgage-backed syndicated loan at 24.3 million francs.
Outstandings already known
Bank Julius Baer’s high outstanding debts to the Signa Group have been known for some time. The private bank indirectly confirmed the loans at the end of November; according to information at the time, the sum amounted to 606 million francs.
Last week, the Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) also disclosed loans worth 73 million francs to the Signa Group, but these were mortgage-backed property financing.
Signa holding companies
The Signa real estate group of the Austrian investor René Benko has run into massive difficulties as a result of rising interest rates. In the past few weeks, both the Signa holding company and numerous companies in the extremely complex group have filed for bankruptcy.
The deadline for registering claims against Signa Holding expired on Monday (January 15th), as a spokeswoman for Signa Holding’s insolvency administrator explained to AWP. The registrations will now be checked. A so-called examination meeting is scheduled for January 29th. However, this is a non-public procedure, which is why the insolvency administrator does not comment on individual claims.
2024-01-18 15:37:59
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