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Rarely shows up in public. The last time René Benko (42) and his wife Nathalie were seen in Kitzbühel in January.
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Siggi Bucher
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René Benko, with his Signa Group and a Thai partner, reaches for the Globus department store chain for sale.
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imago / Skata
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René Benko started his real estate empire in the late 1990s with the renovation and sale of attics.
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Getty Images
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Austrians among themselves: Arnold Schwarzenegger and René Benko (72) at Oktoberfest 2017 in Munich.
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With the reach of the Migros subsidiary Globus, the Tyrolean real estate entrepreneur René Benko (42) suddenly became a major player in the real estate and retail business in Switzerland. In addition to his home country of Austria, his Signa Group is also prominently represented in Germany as the owner of the Karstadt and Kaufhof department stores. The real estate empire, which he founded in 1999, has around 320 locations in prime city center locations from Berlin (D), Hamburg (D), Innsbruck (A) to Vienna (A) and over 100 web shops in 20 countries. Signa’s real estate portfolio is worth around 19 billion euros, and the retail division’s turnover is 7.2 billion euros.
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Benko started his career in his hometown Innsbruck with the expansion and marketing of attics. He always managed to find prominent and solvent partners for his spectacular construction projects. Some of them are now with him on the Advisory Board of Signa, where he retired to the Executive Committee in 2013. In the same year, the group founded the Signa Retail trading division and has now grown into the five largest trading companies in Europe.
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Associated with politicians
Members of Benko’s Signa Advisory Board and donors are the former Austrian Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer (59), business consultant Roland Berger (83), the Austrian FPÖ politician Susanne Riess (59) and Lindt & Sprüngli President Ernst Tanner (73) ,
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Benko is apparently solvent enough to pay a billion francs for the 48 Globus department stores in Germany. According to the “SonntagsZeitung” is the Deal between Migros and the Signa Group and the Thai Central Group, which has luxury department stores in Italy and Denmark, already dry. Both real estate empires took a 50 percent stake in the troubled department store chain Globus.
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The properties in prime locations such as Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse are driving up the purchase price in advance. Migros did not want to comment on the sale on Sunday. “The sales process is progressing according to plan. As soon as it is completed, we will of course inform you about it, »says a Migros spokesman at BLICK’s request.
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Transparency in cash flows is lacking
It is less clear how the Signa Group gets its money. The group does not publish a consolidated balance sheet. Financial flows also lead to private foundations – two of them were set up by René Benko in Austria, another exists in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Signa made headlines with several investors involved in money laundering scandals. This included the Swiss Falcon Private Bank. Benko himself was sentenced to conditional imprisonment eight years ago for paying bribes, the probation period has expired.
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Benko is also associated with the US real estate tycoon Aby Rosen (59) and its real estate company RFR Holding. The Signa Group set foot in the United States for the first time last December. With RFR as a partner, she bought a New York landmark; the Chrysler Building. And that should only be the beginning of the USA expansion. Special: RFR only bought a six-story property at Bahnhofstrasse 52 in Zurich last summer, but surprisingly sold it again.
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With the sale to Signa, Globus can position itself better in the luxury segment. It is open what the change means for the employees and whether the daughter, who according to Migros boss Fabrice Zumbrunnen (49) no longer fits in Migros DNA, has a “better future” with the new owner. (GNC)
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