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René Benko: The Austrian investor's sports business is up for sale
Photograph:
Marcel Kusch / dpa
Money is running out in the Benko empire: After the Signa Group of Austrian investor René Benko (46) cancelled a promised capital injection of 150 million euros from its online retail subsidiary Signa Sports United (SSU), it was only a matter of time before SSU would file for insolvency with many well-known online shops. Since yesterday there is now clarity.
Not only the Berlin-based umbrella and service company Signa Sport United GmbH with 185 employees, but also its subsidiaries Tennis Point and Internetstores GmbH in Stuttgart with 32 online shops (including Fahrrad.de, Tennis Point, Wiggle, ChainReaction) have filed for the opening of insolvency proceedings in recent days. This was officially announced by the provisional insolvency administrators Christian Gerloff and Stefan Meyer on Tuesday. The development did not come as a surprise, as the online platform Fahrrad.de, which is well-known in Germany, had already suspended returns about two weeks ago.
Signa Sports online shops are back in regular operation
After numerous discussions with suppliers, trade credit insurers and creditors, business operations have now been stabilised and returns are possible again, the insolvency administrators explained. Orders placed before insolvency would also be processed regularly.
Tennis Point, headquartered in Herzebrock-Clarholz in East Westphalia, has around 400 employees, operates various online shops as well as 13 brick-and-mortar stores in Germany, while Internetstores GmbH employs 470 people. The wages of the employees will be paid by the Federal Employment Agency until the end of December. The insolvency benefit is to be paid out in the current week despite the holidays.
1350 employees affected, search for investors begins
A total of around 1350 employees are affected. The insolvency administrators are now looking separately for potential buyers for Tennis-Point and Internet stores. The insolvency proceedings depended "decisively" on the outcome of the talks with the investors. Gerloff and Meyer give the employees hope: Tennis-Point and Internet stores have a strong international market position and a loyal customer base in their respective segments of the sports market. "The impressive number of addresses that have already actively expressed their interest shows that the chances for good solutions for the future are fundamentally there," the insolvency administrators emphasized.
The corporate structure of the dealer holding company SSU is complex – like so many things in the Benko empire. Signa Sport United N.V. is a company incorporated under Dutch law, until recently it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. SSU N.V. has no operating business and is a 100 percent company of Signa Sports United GmbH. After two years and a 96 percent drop in the share price, Benko pulled the ripcord and took SSU off the stock exchange with effect from October 11 in order to begin a restructuring and downsizing of all business areas, as it was said at the time.
What does not exactly simplify the unbundling and separation of important operational parts of the SSU Group is that SSU is considering legal action against the Signa Group because of the cancelled financial injection. It reportedly called the parent company's decision "unjustified" and interpreted the commitment as mandatory.
However, the sports shop is only one of many construction sites in the Benko empire. Benko's group of companies, for a long time the fastest-growing real estate group in Europe, is suffering from severe capital consumption. It is unclear how much money the Austrian really needs. There is talk of up to 400 million euros, which would have to come together with sales or capital injections in the next few weeks, as manager magazin recently reported.
Investors Töller and Berger turn their backs on Benko
Just how tight his real estate group is in cash was shown last week when it was announced that construction work on Benko's Elbtower had been stopped because payments were missing. The city of Hamburg is alarmed, threatening the investor yesterday that the construction and planning contracts allow "the construction work performed so far to be dismantled, sold to a third party for completion or to complete the construction itself".
The tower was supposed to measure 245 meters, but the unfinished shell now rises 100 meters into the air. Who can and wants to continue Benko's prestige project in an emergency, however, is highly speculative. In fact, Benko already seems to be losing the trust of some important investors: After the great advisor Roland Berger (85), Fressnapf founder Torsten Töller (57) is now apparently also distancing himself from Benko and has exercised the put option for his shares in Signa Holding, reports the "Handelsblatt" on Wednesday. Toeller has been invested in Benko's real estate holding company for ten years and holds a 4.5 percent stake in the holding company. The freight forwarder Klaus-Michael Kühne (86) also has the right to convert his shares into cash. The investors did not want to answer questions about this either to manager magazin or to the "Handelsblatt".