A €200 million ($218 million) loan to Signa’s flagship property unit has become a roadblock in attempts to sell off its assets and fund a restructuring, according to insolvency administrators, Bloomberg News reported. The loan from the Schoeller Group, controlled by one of Germany’s industrialist families, is one of the last cash injections Signa Prime Selection managed to secure in July 2023, before its insolvency in December.

Rene Benko, the founder of the ailing Signa conglomerate, filed for personal insolvency at an Austrian court that was in the process of reviewing his personal finances, Bloomberg News reported. Benko made the filing voluntarily, Norbert Wess, a lawyer for the businessman told Bloomberg by email, confirming earlier media reports by the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. The decision deepens the private fallout for the tycoon from the financial meltdown at his property and retail empire, large parts of which sought creditor protection last year.

Rene Benko’s ailing property group Signa is close to selling a building in downtown Munich to German construction tycoon Alfons Doblinger, in what would be the first major asset sale since its main units filed for insolvency in December, Bloomberg News reported. Signa Prime and its insolvency administrator are in direct talks with the 80 year-old entrepreneur over the sale of Rosenstrasse 8 in Munich’s main shopping area. The building has been marketed for about €100 million ($109 million).

Alternative investment managers including Arini, Eicos and Squarepoint have tens of millions of euros at risk with their investments in a unit of the insolvent real estate conglomerate Signa, Bloomberg News reported. Arini, a hedge fund founded by former Credit Suisse trader Hamza Lemssouguer, holds about half of the €300 million ($326 million) of bonds issued by Signa Development, making it one of the biggest creditors of the company, according to a company filing circulated on Monday and seen by Bloomberg News.

René Benko was a high school dropout and convicted criminal. But by 2018, he was at the pinnacle of global real estate. His company, Signa Holding, launched a glassy, J-shaped skyscraper on the banks of the River Elbe in Hamburg, Germany. The design of the 800-foot tower resembled a chart showing exponential growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hamburg’s mayor, the future German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, lauded Signa’s good reputation with banks when the city picked the developer to build the tower. “Signa is financially strong,” he said. It wasn’t.

The collapse of the Signa retail and real estate group is so dire that even companies hired to liquidate an insolvent unit will have to stand in line to recoup their money, Bloomberg News reported. The bankruptcy administrator for Signa Real Estate Management GmbH said assets were insufficient to pay for the clean-up, triggering a special clause under Austrian insolvency law, according to a notice to the Vienna Commercial Court.

The troubled European Signa holding company is facing claims totalling 8.613 billion euros ($9.32 billion), its court-appointed manager said on Monday, a figure that is 70% more than debts originally flagged last year when it filed for insolvency, Reuters reported. The insolvency manager, Christof Stapf, said that it had recognized only a fraction of the claims so far - just 80.3 million euros - and that many of the claims arrived without necessary supporting materials or late. Signa is the biggest casualty so far of Europe's property crisis.

The company behind Signa’s flagship high-rise development in Hamburg filed for insolvency, further challenging efforts to restructure René Benko’s property empire, Bloomberg News reported. The company developing the 245 meter (800 feet) Elbtower notified the city of its request for creditor protection Friday, according to a statement from the municipality’s authority for urban development and housing.

Germany’s Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store chain is attracting interest from buyers looking to lap up assets hit by the insolvency of Rene Benko’s Signa empire, Bloomberg News reported. “There are more than two interested parties,” insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus said in emailed comments to Bloomberg, declining to give further details. A creditor committee is discussing the sale process and will swiftly proceed with negotiations, he said.

Beleaguered bondholders of Signa Development Selection AG are looking to prevent a law enacted 150 years ago by the authorities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from limiting their ability to pursue claims against the insolvent firm, Bloomberg News reported. Lawyers for the property unit of the Signa group recommended that a court-appointed kurator represent collectively the holders of the €300 million ($329 million) defaulted notes during the self-administration process, according to insolvency filings seen by Bloomberg News.