Kuehne owner sees triple-digit million hit on Signa investment

LOGISTICS billionaire Klaus-Michael Kuehne anticipates triple-digit million-euro losses from investments in the insolvent real estate firm Signa Prime Selection, Welt am Sonntag reported. 

Kuehne didn’t rule out further investment to rescue the Elbtower project in Hamburg, the newspaper reported. The partly constructed skyscraper, designed to dominate the Hamburg harbour, has come to symbolise the fall of Signa and its founder, Austrian real estate tycoon Rene Benko. 

“Mr Benko showed me many beautiful photos of properties, and I let myself be snowed by him,” the newspaper quoted Kuehne as saying, adding that the losses will be manageable. “I often ponder how that could have happened to me.”

Insolvency sales of the properties would drive down their value, Kuehne told Welt. Kuehne Holding and some banks weighed an emergency loan for more than 100 million euros (S$145.1 million) this year to provide liquidity and allow the property firm to lift some developments out of insolvency, potentially leading to higher prices if they’re sold, people familiar with the matter said at the time. 

Signa Prime is the biggest unit in Benko’s retail and property conglomerate. The property company’s holdings run the gamut of luxury, from a Venetian palazzo to iconic shopping names Selfridges and KaDeWe in Berlin. 

Falling real estate values and rising interest rates sent various units in the group into insolvency starting late last year. BLOOMBERG