Signa Holding GmbH: Insolvency proceedings reveal 8.6 billion euros in claims

In the insolvency proceedings of Signa Holding GmbH, a total of 8.6 billion euros in claims have been filed, according to the insolvency administrator, Christof Stapf. However, Stapf has initially only accepted around 80 million euros of the claims and rejected the majority of them. With the rejected claims, creditors now have the option to try and secure a portion of the funds through a court decision. Stapf has referred to the total amount of claims as an "inflation" of the sum. He highlighted the 5.1 billion euros in guarantees that the holding company had provided, as well as an additional 1.6 billion euros in liabilities within the Signa group. It is anticipated that a portion of these amounts will not be considered in the insolvency proceedings. The insolvency proceedings of Signa Holding, as well as its key subsidiary companies Signa Prime and Signa Development, are further complicated by the fact that Austrian Signa founder, René Benko, has built the group on a complex network of hundreds of individual firms, lacking transparency. Among the entities within the Signa group are the insolvent department store conglomerate, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, the KaDeWe in Berlin, and the Elbtower high-rise project in Hamburg. Signa had experienced significant expansion during a period of low interest rates. However, with increasing interest rates, construction costs, and energy prices, the group has plunged into a crisis.