Signa Holding GmbH (stylized SIGNA) was Austria's largest privately owned real estate company. Signa Holding GmbH announced insolvency proceedings at the end of November 2023. The company will apply for self-administration and restructuring in Vienna's Commercial Court.
Signa was founded in 2000 by the Tyrolean entrepreneur René Benko. Over the years, it has become a pan-European real estate group with more than 150 employees and offices in Vienna, Innsbruck, Munich, Düsseldorf, Luxembourg, Zurich, Bolzano, Berlin and Hamburg. The principal focus of the group is long-term investment in real estate in prime city centre locations. The firm has also became the biggest owner of malls in Central Europe with over 46,000 employees.Wir glauben an die City Interview with René Benko in the magazine Bilanz on 27 February
Structure In 2013, Signa extended its activities on merchandising by acquiring majority stakes in the German sporting goods specialist Karstadt sports and in Karstadt Premium. In the summer of 2014, Signa took over Karstadt Warenhaus.
Since 2013 Signa operates in two independent business segments. In 2018 a third segment with "Signa Media" was added.
Signa Real Estate Signa Retail Signa Media Within Signa Real Estate, over 150 employees manage a real estate portfolio of around €6 billion out of ten offices in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Real estate operations are organised in four distinct divisions: Signa Prime Selection AG Long term ownership of exceptional city-centre properties in European highstreets
Signa Property Funds Closed-end real estate funds
Signa Development Traditional project development
Signa Recap Real estate investment productsSigna Retail holds and manages all merchandising activities with stakes in three of the largest German retail companies. Over 20.000 people working in over 100 locations generate annual revenues of over €3 billion. Karstadt Sports Number 2 German sporting goods retailer
Karstadt Warenhaus German department store group
The KaDeWe Group Operator of premium department stores in the legendary KaDeWe in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich. (49% owned by Signa) Outfitter: Multi-Channel-retailer for sport equipment and fashion in Germany dress-for-less GmbH: Online-Outlet for fashion internetstores: Online-retailer for outdoor and bicycle gear Tennis-Point: Multi-Channel-retailer for tennis gear Eataly Probikeshop: Online-Bike-Retailer in France and Southeurope hood.de: Online-retailer Mybestbrands: Online-fashion-mall Sportscheck Globus (Swiss malls) In late 2018 the Signa Holding bought 49% of the foreign company shares from the "Funke Mediengruppe". Through this investment Signa owns part of the two biggest Austrian newspapers:Funke Mediengruppe and SIGNA establish partnership for joint investment in "Krone" and "Kurier" Signa on 12 November 2018 Kronen Zeitung Kurier
The group of companies covers real estate assets worth more than 14 billion euros. The current development volume is about 8 billion euros. The Signa Group is not only active in its core markets of Austria and Germany but also in Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Czech Republic. In an interview in February 2020 René Benko talked about total assets of 25 billion Euro.
Corporate structure and management The principal shareholder of Signa Holding is the Familie Benko Privatstiftung which holds 85% of all company shares. Ernst Tanner, the manager of Lindt & Sprüngli, holds another 10% of shares. The final 5% are owned by Torsten Töller, manager of Fressnapf. The Greek ship owner George Economou exited the company in 2015.
The management of Signa Holding GmbH is the responsibility of the two CEOs Christoph Stadlhuber and Marcus Mühlberger. Since the beginning of 2013 the operational and strategic management of the Signa Group has been the responsibility of the Group Executive Board (GEB) whose five members are the CEOs of the core areas and the Group CFO. The GEB deals not only with the operations of the individual core areas but also with cross-company matters including group strategy and coordination as well as fundraising.Structure of Signa Holding
Advisory board of Signa Holding The advisory board does not have an official corporate law function, but it is considered the body that determines the strategic lines in Signa. The chairman of this advisory board: company founder René Benko. The members: Alfred Gusenbauer, former SPÖ chancellor, said he was friends with Benko. He was member of the advisory board of Signa Holding. Susanne Riess-Hahn, former FPÖ Vice Chancellor, was also on the Signa Holding advisory board. The advisory board also includes: ex-Raiffeisen banker Karl Sevelda and ex-Casinos Austria director Karl Stoss.
Selected of real estate assets The new headquarters of the German Stock Exchange in Eschborn near Frankfurt, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich city centre site in Munich, and objects in Vienna's pedestrian zone and Mariahilfer Straße belong to the Signa portfolio, as do the Sevens shopping centre on Düsseldorf's Königsallee w In Austria, Kaufhaus Tyrol and the properties of the Goldenes Quartier in Vienna and one of the buildings which houses Meinl am Graben belong to the Signa portfolio. In December 2013 it was announced that Signa had acquired the Wiener Postsparkasse, the headquarters of Bawag P.S.K., and rented it back to the bank long-term.Wirtschaftsblatt, 13. December 2013 The Hotel Bauer Palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice was acquired in 2020 by Benko's Signa group adding to its hotel portfolio which includes the Park Hyatt Vienna, The Chalet N in Lech am Arlberg, and the Villa Eden luxury resort at Lake Garda in Italy.
History The Signa Holding was founded in the year 2000 and emerged from the previous company Immofinna from René Benko. In the modest beginnings the company focused on renovating lofts. In 2001 Karl Kovarik joined the company and the first office in Vienna was opened. In 2004 the construction of the shopping mall Kaufhaus Tyrol started. In the following years offices in Munich, Zürich and Luxembourg opened. In this time also large property, like the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt, were added to the portfolio.
Since 2012: The Karstadt takeover Karstadt Premium GmbH, Karstadt Sports GmbH and Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH and their sub-divisions were taken over in a series of steps. At the end of December 2012 a portfolio of 17 Karstadt department stores including the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin was acquired by Signa Prime Selection AG for a sum of over 1.1 billion euros. The transaction was by far the largest retail real estate investment in Germany in 2012. On 16 September 2013 it was disclosed that Signa, together with the BSG Group, had taken over 75.1% of the operative business of Karstadt-Premium-GmbH and 75.1% of the operative business of Karstadt-Sports-GmbH from the Berggruen Holding of the German-American businessman Nicolas Berggruen for 300 million euros. This sum was to be spent on the strengthening of the Karstadt Group and the modernisation of individual stores with the aim of guaranteeing Karstadt's long-term competitiveness. In November 2013 Signa passed on half of its shares – that is to say 37.55% - in Karstadt Premium and the sports shops, to the Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz. Karstadt Premium operates the three luxury department stores Kaufhaus des Westens in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg and Oberpollinger in Munich. With its 28 sports shops, Karstadt Sports is one of Germany's leading retailers of sporting goods. On 15 August 2014 Signa Holding acquired 100% of the shares in Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH and the remaining shares in Karstadt Premium GmbH and Karstadt Sports GmbH. The deal marked the final withdrawal of Berggruen Holdings from the operations of the Karstadt Group and from i the ownership of individual Karstadt properties.Bloomberg, 15. August 2014
In the financial year 2015/16 the Karstadt group managed to earn the first profit in years. In the following year the profit broke the one million euro mark. The future focus will include the online business.
Since 2016: Further expansions Participation in Outfitter
In April 2016, Signa Retail acquired a majority stake in Outfitter, one of the leading sports multi-channel providers. As part of this investment, Signa Retail acquired 60% of Outfitter - the remaining 40% remained with Ron Berger. The founder and former sole shareholder will thus continue to be significantly involved and, together with his managing director Maximilian Albert, will continue to operate the business. The plan is to create conditions for the desired market leadership in Germany with the coupling of Karstadt Sports and Outfitter.
Acquisition of dress-for-less
In August 2016, Signa took over 100% of the designer fashion online outlet dress-for-less, a company founded in 1999 with a presence in thirteen countries, principally in the D-A-CH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region and in the Netherlands. In 2011, the Spanish-based shopping club Privalia acquired the German company. In November 2015, Privalia withdrew and the management team, headed by managing director Antonio Gonzalo, took over the company. In the meantime, Mirco Schultis - founder of dress-for-less in 1998 - returned to the role of CEO. Sandra Rehm has been managing the company since July 2017. The company employs around 260 people at its headquarters in Kelsterbach, Hesse. The dispatch of the commodity takes place over 60 countries.
Takeover of Internet stores
At the beginning of November 2016, Signa Retail acquired an 87% stake in the specialist mail-order company for bicycle and outdoor products, called Internet stores. The entire management remained on board: Markus Winter. took over as CEO t r 1 October 2016 T As of 2017, Internetstores is active with online shops in 14 European countries. The outdoor portfolio includes the German online retailer Campz and the Swedish internet company Addnature. In the bicycle segment, Internet stores with Fahrrad.de and Brügelmann are mainly active in Germany, with bikers across Europe.
Takeover of Tennis Point
At the end of 2016, Signa acquired a 78% majority stake in the multi-channel retailer Tennis-Point in the sporting goods retail sector. Company founders Christian Miele and Thomas Welle continue to manage the company and retain 22% of the shares. With its range of more than 12,000 tennis and running articles from more than 100 different sports brands, private labels and exclusive brands, Tennis-Point has a wide range of products that are distributed in the 19 online shops and the 12 branches at various locations in the DACH region. https://www.signa.at/en/retail/tennis-point/ Signa about Tennis Point
Joint venture for Karstadt München Bahnhofplatz
In a central location in Munich, between the main station and Stachus, Signa Real Estate went in October 2016 in a joint venture with the partner RFR Holding GmbH and has participated in the famous department store ensemble Karstadt München Bahnhofplatz.
Since 2018 On 11 September 2018 Signa acquired the majority of the department store chain Galeria Kaufhof from Canada's Hudson's Bay Company, which had bought the chain in 2013. This takeover allowed Signa to merge its Karstadt department store chain with Galeria Kaufhof. In June 2019 the shares in Galeria Kaufhof still held by the Hudson's Bay Company, were bought by Signa Holding.Hudson's Bay Stock Soars 43% on Buyout Interest and Exit From Europe Yahoo Finance on 10 June 2019