In the wake of the bankruptcy of the former real estate empire Signa, billions in claims evaporated. The insolvency administrators fight for every cent for the creditors. The liquidator of Signa Holding, Christof Stapf, is currently challenging a dubious loan granted by the Laura Private Foundation of the company founder René Benko and his mother Ingeborg to Signa Holding in court shortly before it filed for insolvency. According to “Kurier”, it’s about five million euros. About six weeks before the bankruptcy was declared in November 2023, the holding company received the said sum from the Laura Private Foundation. There are also inconsistencies with the company shares pledged. With the action for rescission, Stapf wants to ensure that the legal transaction is ineffective, combined with compensation for damages. Stapf accuses the Laura Private Foundation of having “concluded an immediately disadvantageous legal transaction so close to the bankruptcy of Signa Holding.” In his opinion, the loan would not have been necessary at all. The Laura Private Foundation would have actually granted Signa Holding a current account credit line of 50 million euros until the end of 2025, “which could be used in full”. There are further inconsistencies: “In this context, it is also important that the loan was passed on to (Signa company) Sport Scheck in Germany immediately after it was received by Signa Holding, which was due to the (poor) economic situation at the time “Signa Holding and the situation of the subsidiary Sport Scheck could no longer be justified,” says Stapf est. In return for the now disputed five million loan, the Laura Private Foundation was reportedly pledged all of its shares in the Luxembourg company Villa Eden Beteiligung SARL. This in turn owned the operating company of the Hotel Villa Eden on Lake Garda. “For a long time, attempts were made to sell the operational (Italian) Villa Eden Hotelbetrieb Srl together with the pledgee (Laura Privatstiftung) and to reserve the division of proceeds for further (out-of-court) negotiations,” writes Stapf in a report. This “ultimately failed due to the Laura Private Foundation’s lack of willingness”. She informed Stapf that she was taking the shares. The foundation has now allegedly sold these shares to a private individual, according to the “Kurier”. According to the current status, financiers have a good 7.7 billion euros in receivables from Signa Holding alone. However, only around 1.2 billion euros of this have so far been recognized by the liquidator, 6.5 billion are disputed. In April, the Vienna Commercial Court converted Signa Holding’s insolvency proceedings from restructuring proceedings to bankruptcy proceedings. In bankruptcy proceedings there is no minimum quota for creditors’ claims.
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