René Benko

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René Benko (2011)

René Benko (born May 20, 1977 in Innsbruck , Tyrol ) is an Austrian entrepreneur and investor in the real estate , media and retail sectors . The Signa Holding he founded is Austria's largest private real estate company and is also active on a large scale in Germany and Northern Italy . In the past few years, Signa Holding has also established itself in the retail sector with the acquisition of Karstadt , KaDeWe Group , Kika / Leiner , numerous online retailers and Galeria Kaufhof . In November 2018, Signa Holding also acquired media stakes in the most popular newspapers in Austria, the Kurier (24.22%) and the Krone (24.5%). Benko is a multi-billionaire and one of the richest Austrians .

Origin and education

René Benko was born as the son of a community worker and a teacher in Innsbruck and attended the commercial and business academy . He has a younger sister. At the age of 17 he first got to know the real estate industry better in the company of a builder friend. He then left school because he had too many absences to be admitted to the Matura . According to research by Addendum, Benko completed training courses at the German financial services provider AWD (now Swiss Life Select) in the mid-1990s .

Private

René Benko lives in Innsbruck . In his second marriage he is married to the former model Nathalie Benko (née Sterchele) and has four children. He was divorced from his first wife, who is also the mother of his first daughter, in 2005.

capital

Forbes estimated his net worth at $ 4.9 billion in 2019, which makes him the third richest Austrian and ranked 365th worldwide. According to the Austrian business magazine Trend , his assets in 2014, when Karstadt was taken over, were around 850 million euros. In 2018, Trend determinedaround 3.81 billion euros and was placed at number 8 on the list of the richest Austrians .

Entrepreneurial background

Until 2006

Front Kaufhaus Tyrol, Innsbruck (2010)

One of Benko's first projects - according to his own statement - was the conversion of attics into luxury apartments from 1995 onwards. In 1997 he acquired an option to purchase shares in the Lanserhof wellness hotel near Innsbruck, which he sold at a profit to Christian Harisch .

In 2001, as managing director of Medicent in Innsbruck, he and his business partner, the Vorarlberg construction industrialist Günther Schertler (died 2014), acquired a property on the Innrain , on the area of ​​which a specialist medical center was built under the brand name “Medicent”.

In 2001, Benko founded Immofina Holding GmbH together with the car dealer and " Stroh " petrol station heir, Karl Kovarik , who provided EUR 26 million in start-up aid . In the next steps, further specialist medical centers were successfully opened in Austria. In 2004, Immofina acquired Kaufhaus Tyrol , which was rebuilt from 2007 to 2010. David Chipperfield carried out the planning . The Innsbruck office of Signa Holding is still located in Kaufhaus Tyrol. Before the completion of Kaufhaus Tyrol, the Signa Holding offices were in the Europahaus on Museumstrasse.

In October 2004, Benko looked specifically for the public, soliciting investors for the Immofina Group's first closed real estate fund “Signa: 01 Property Fund”. In addition to other funds, he planned to found a bank for real estate investments based on the Constantia Privatbank model .

In 2005, the company advisory board was founded with prominent figures from politics and business, which has helped shape the company's strategy to this day and in 2006 renamed Immofina Holding GmbH to Signa Holding GmbH.

To 2012

View of the "Am Hof" square, Vienna (2012)

In 2007, 16 properties in inner-city locations were purchased from the Bawag PSK portfolio. This change of ownership took place shortly after the Bawag sale .

In 2008 René Benko expanded his portfolio with another property from a bank's portfolio. The former headquarters of the Länderbank and Bank Austria Am Hof became the property of Signa Holding and became today's Hotel Park Hyatt Vienna .

In 2009 the Greek shipowner George Economou took part , but ended his involvement in 2015. The main shareholder of Signa Holding is the family Benko private foundation with a controlling stake of 85%. Ernst Tanner , Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lindt & Sprüngli , holds 10% of the shares, and Torsten Toeller , the founder and majority shareholder of the Fressnapf retail chain, has held 5% in Signa Holding since 2017 .

In 2010 Rene Benko added the Deutsche Börse building in Eschborn to the Signa Holding portfolio.

Oberpollinger department store, Munich (2017)

In 2011 he received another significant degree with the Oberpollinger department store in Munich . A first step on the way to the takeover of Karstadt and entry into the retail sector.

On November 2, 2012, Benko and his tax advisor Michael Passer were sentenced to a conditional prison sentence of one year for “attempted prohibited intervention” ( bribe ) at the Vienna Regional Court. The judge found that in 2009, on behalf of Benko, Passer contacted former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and offered him 150,000 euros in order to influence a pending court case in Italy . The judgment was upheld on August 13, 2013 by the Higher Regional Court and, after Benko had filed an appeal for annulment , by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2014 .

Benko tries to curb the reporting on his conviction by pointing out that it has already been deleted from the criminal record and requests cease and desist from various media companies, some of which - especially in Austria - were successful.

According to media reports, the Israeli diamond dealer Beny Steinmetz founded a joint venture with Signa Prime Selection AG in 2012 and thus enabled the purchase of the Berlin KaDeWe and 16 other Karstadt properties from the German-American investor Nicolas Berggruen for around 1.1 billion euros . According to the German antitrust authorities, the takeover was applied for on December 21, 2012, 50 percent each by Signa and the Beny Steinmetz Group . In 2015, Rene Benko and the Israeli company parted ways again when the portfolio was split up.

Until 2018

On June 18, 2013 Benko retired from the operational management of Signa Holding GmbH and took over the chairmanship of the Advisory Board of the Signa Group.

The new Signa Retail division was founded in 2013. With the acquisition of the Karstadt department store chain, other online and multi-channel retailers and purchase offers for Galeria Kaufhof GmbH , Benkos Signa Holding is no longer only active in the area of ​​real estate investment, but also an important company in the retail sector.

Park apartments at the Belvedere in the construction phase, Vienna (2018)

In 2014 some real estate projects were completed in Austria. This included the Golden Quarter and the Park Apartments at the Belvedere .

In 2015, the Signa Retail division started a joint venture through Eataly Distribution Deutschland GmbH with the Italian Eataly , the largest distributor of Italian consumer goods worldwide.

Significant in 2016 was the approval for the Waltherpark shopping center through a referendum in Bolzano .

The year 2017 was particularly marked by expansions in online trading , such as the complete takeover of Probikeshop via internet stores and 70 percent of the shares in Hood.de by Karstadt mother Signa. On December 29, 2017, the Kika - Leiner flagship store in Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse 10-18, acquired by Benko for 60 million euros, was transferred to Laura Daphne GmbH , a subsidiary of the Laura Private Foundation , whose founders in turn René Benko and his mother Ingeborg Benko are.

On June 21, 2018, Signa Holding bought the Kika and Leiner furniture chains with around 6,500 employees from Bruno Steinhoff for EUR 600 million through the South African Steinhoff International Holdings .

On September 11, 2018, the long negotiated merger between Karstadt and Kaufhof was officially confirmed. Benko thus created a so-called “department store giant”, with 49.99 percent of Signa Retail owned by the Canadian retail group Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and 50.01 percent by Signa Holding. Through this merger, René Benko was accepted into the circle of “People of the Year 2018” of the German daily Handelsblatt . Roland Berger , member of the Signa advisory board and shareholder of Signa Prime since 2013, wrote the article in the Handelsblatt .

The top of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, New York City

In November 2018, the first investment in the media sector was announced through the acquisition of shares in the Austrian daily newspapers Kronen Zeitung and Kurier by Signa Holding.

Since 2018, Benko has been negotiating with the city of Hamburg to acquire a plot of land in the east of HafenCity for 122 million euros in order to erect a 244.8 meter high building on it for around 700 million euros under the name Elbtower .

2019

Acquisitions

In March 2019, the Signa Holding acquired by Benko equally with the US RFR Holding for 151 million US dollars , the New York Chrysler Building . At the same time, plans were presented to Signa Holding in Wolfsburg - with an investment sum in the high three-digit million range - for the redesign of an area south and west of Wolfsburg Central Station in the Nordkopf urban area .

At the beginning of April 2019, the Technical Commission of the state of South Tyrol gave the "green light" for the sale of Bolzano Airport to a company owned by Benko, the Bolzano entrepreneur Josef Gostner and Strabag boss Hans Peter Haselsteiner ; the expansion and internationalization of the airport is planned.

In June 2019, Benkos Signa Holding took over the remaining 49.99 percent of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (the merger that resulted from the acquisition of the first Galeria Kaufhof shares in 2018 ) from the ownership of the Hudson's Bay Company. In addition to the takeover, Signa Holding also carried out other transactions in June 2019. The holding company sold Austria Campus  2 to a real estate fund of the Bavarian Supply Chamber . The Signa sports retail division took over the tennis pro group itself. The French investment company Société Foncière, Financière et de Participations , which is majority owned by the Peugeot family holding company, acquired a 5 percent stake in Signa Prime Selection for a total of 186 million euros. The Madison International Realty also participated with 5% at the Signa Prime Selection.

"The Benko Principle"

On March 25, 2019, the Austrian research platform Addendum published an extensive research on René Benko and his Signa Group under the title The Benko Principle . In response, Signa Holding filed a lawsuit against passages from the Addendum report; the subject of the lawsuit is for omission and revocation because of libel and credit damage. The podcast is still available.

Kronenzeitung

On April 7, 2019, Benko gave a detailed interview in the daily Die Presse on the latest events around the Krone and other reports on himself. In the interview, he denied any plans to take over shares of the Dichand family in the Krone. In addition, in the interview he admitted plans to want to take over the entire shares of the German Funke media group in Krone and Kurier , but he emphasized that this should not affect the shares of the Dichand family. The article also mentions that, according to Benko, the editorial offices should remain independent and that entering the media business would only pursue economic motives.

Ibiza affair

In a video (Ibiza video) that was secretly filmed in July 2017, which was leaked to Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung in May 2019 , the then FPÖ party chairman Heinz-Christian Strache claims that billionaires like Benko, Gaston Glock and Heidi Horten as well the gambling company Novomatic would donate from Johann Graf through a cover club of the FPÖ in violation of party funding in Austria for the election campaign of the FPÖ. All the people and companies named in the video as donors disputed the proceedings on the same day. In the course of his resignation speech on May 18, 2019, Strache apologized to Benko and all other people or companies named in the video and stated that his statements were "an expression of simple boasting".

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benko follows up in an exchange of blows with Berggruen ( memento of October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Wirtschaftsblatt . November 24, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  2. ↑ Real estate investor Benko buys in "Krone" and "Kurier". November 12, 2018, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b "trend" ranking: The 100 richest Austrians 2018 . In: trend.at.
  4. ↑ Rene Benko: The new Wlaschek. October 31, 2011, accessed April 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Attics to penthouses. Retrieved February 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Gerhard Hofer, Beate Lammer: Benko: "I am an absolute beneficiary of the crisis". In: The press . September 17, 2008, accessed August 15, 2014 .
  7. ^ Karstadt investor René Benko: Immobilientycoon on probation , FAZ, August 15, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Nice to be able to own something like this" . In: sueddeutsche.de . November 10, 2011, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed April 3, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Risk - The Fastest Path to Wealth , addendum.org March 25, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019.
  10. ^ "Profile": René Benko is getting married. Retrieved April 17, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Volker Mester: René Benko is Hamburg's new real estate billionaire. January 18, 2019, accessed on April 14, 2019 (German).
  12. ↑ Rene Benko - Tyrolean self-made billionaire with a penchant for luxury Die Presse on November 12, 2018.
  13. ↑ René Benko: I don't want Paris Hilton. January 3, 2008, accessed May 9, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Benko rises high in the rich ranking. In: derStandard.at. Retrieved March 6, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Who is the man who owns Karstadt? wiwo.de from August 14, 2014, accessed on May 5, 2019.
  16. ↑ Michael Gassmann: Head of the Week: René Benko: The Intervener . In: The world . August 17, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed April 3, 2019]).
  17. ↑ entrepreneur with 30 . In: format . No. 12 , March 21, 2003, Department: Economy.
  18. ↑ René Benko - The Man of the Year , trend.at January 9, 2012, accessed on May 3, 2019.
  19. ↑ Neues Ärztehaus , Salzburger Nachrichten, section: Local from January 16, 2001, read on May 3, 2019.
  20. ↑ "The uniqueness is the concept" , Salzburger Nachrichten, section: Local from January 18, 2002, read on May 3, 2019.
  21. ↑ Profit , No. TOP-Profit-1a, section: TOP Geld / TGE TOP Geld, p. 38 of January 15, 2002, read on May 3, 2019.
  22. ↑ René Benko - the miracle whirlpool. Retrieved February 22, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Format No. 45/04 of November 5, 2004, section: business, courage & a portion of luck. P. 44, read on May 3, 2019.
  24. ↑ Leo Himmelbauer: Gusenbauer-Benko-Wiedeking buy the KaDeWe. (No longer available online.) In: Wirtschaftsblatt . December 23, 2012, archived from the original on December 24, 2012 ; accessed on August 15, 2014 .
  25. ↑ BAWAG PSK sells real estate package to Signa Holding APA on November 29, 2007.
  26. ↑ René Benko - The Man of the Year. In: trend.at. Retrieved March 31, 2017 .
  27. ↑ “Model case for corruption”: Conditional detention for René Benko , wienerzeitung.at of November 2, 2012, accessed on May 6, 2019.
  28. ↑ Twelve months conditional imprisonment for Benko. In: ORF.at. November 2, 2012, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Model case for corruption: Conditional detention for René Benko. In: Wiener Zeitung. November 2, 2012, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  30. ↑ OLG confirms judgment for real estate investor Benko. In: DerStandard.at. August 13, 2013, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Judgment against Benko confirmed: Tyrolean real estate billionaire now wants before the Supreme Court. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper. August 13, 2013, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Supreme Court confirms Benko conviction for corruption. In: DiePresse.com. August 11, 2014, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Benko wants to forbid the media to write about his conviction. In: Spiegel Online. November 16, 2018, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  34. ↑ Florian Horcicka: Beny Steinmetz, Rene Benko's rich friend , trend.at from December 3, 2013, accessed on May 6, 2019.
  35. ↑ Benko's new sponsor: Diamond billionaire Steinmetz , diepresse.com from January 16, 2013, accessed on May 6, 2019.
  36. ↑ Benko lifts billion dollar deal with Israeli , tt.com January 17, 2013, accessed May 6, 2019.
  37. ↑ Karstadt investor proposes department store property Manager Magazin on August 24, 2016
  38. ↑ Benko withdrew from Signa leadership . Die Presse , August 23, 2013. Accessed August 28, 2013.
  39. ↑ Signa plans to buy Kaufhof Signa plans to buy Kaufhof. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 1st November 2017.
  40. ↑ Why Karstadt is buying the Hood.de online marketplace , t3n.de from June 14, 2017, accessed on March 3, 2019.
  41. ↑ Benko buys the Leiner flagship store on Mariahilfer Strasse. In: DiePresse.com. January 5, 2018, accessed August 10, 2019 .
  42. ↑ addendum.org
  43. ↑ addendum.org
  44. ↑ Saved: Signa takes over the Kika / Leiner furniture chain with Arnold. (June 28, 2018).
  45. ↑ Signa buys Kika / Leiner. (June 15, 2018).
  46. ↑ sn.at
  47. ↑ Signa creates new department store giant. In: Wiener Zeitung. 11th September 2018.
  48. ↑ Benkos Karstadt-Sports ends cooperation with Intersport , tt.com from April 3, 2019, accessed on March 3, 2019.
  49. ↑ Signa creates new department store giant Wiener Zeitung on September 11, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2019.
  50. ↑ The empire of René Benko and the urge for greatness. In: Trend . 28–29 / 2018.
  51. ↑ Hudson's Bay, Signa form European retail, real estate joint venture , reuters.com, September 11, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019.
  52. ^ Roland Berger: Strategist of the year. Investor René Benko - With a flair for money and business for the department store coup , handelsblatt.com from December 26, 2018.
  53. ↑ Karstadt owner Benko buys into Austrian newspapers. (November 12, 2018).
  54. ^ Elbtower: Tower of Hamburg , zeit.de from March 6, 2019.
  55. ^ Message from the Senate to the Citizenship , Citizenship of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, June 16, 2018, accessed on March 27, 2019.
  56. ↑ Aby Rosen buys Chrysler Building in New York. Top Magazin Frankfurt from March 20, 2019, accessed on March 27, 2019.
  57. ↑ Karstadt owner Benko buys Chrysler Building. Spiegel Online from March 9, 2019.
  58. ↑ Wolfsburg's new heart soon beats here Wolfsburger Allgemeine from March 27, 2019.
  59. ↑ regionalwolfsburg.de
  60. ↑ wolfsburger-nachrichten.de
  61. ↑ tageszeitung.it
  62. ↑ Signa takes over all shares in Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof Tiroler Tageszeitung on June 10, 2019.
  63. ↑ Benko: Signa sells Austria Campus 2 to Immobilienfonds Kurier on June 19, 2019.
  64. ↑ Handelsblatt in June 2019 on the Tennis-Pro takeover
  65. ↑ The Peugeot brothers get 5 percent at Benkos Signa Kleine Zeitung, June 19, 2019.
  66. ↑ July 22, 2019 Madison participates in the € 12.5 billion Signa portfolio accessed on July 26, 2019.
  67. ↑ The Benko Principle , addendum.org, accessed on March 26, 2019.
  68. ↑ billionaire vs. Billionaire. René Benko sued Mateschitz '"Addendum" , derstandard.de of March 29, 2019, accessed on April 7, 2019.
  69. ↑ René Benko. Retrieved August 16, 2020 .
  70. ↑ Anton Rainer: How Kaufhof owner René Benko reaches for the "Kronen Zeitung" with rude methods , spiegel.de of April 5, 2019, accessed on April 7, 2019.
  71. ↑ "Crown" -Streit: billionaire Benko denies interest in Dichand shares - derstandard.at/2000100961176/Krone-Streit-Milliardaer-Benko-verneint-Interesse-an-Dichand-Anteilen The default of 7 April of 2019.
  72. ↑ Federal Chancellor Kurz wants to comment on the Strache scandal. (spiegel.de)
  73. ^ German media: Secret recordings burden Strache. In: news.orf.at. May 17, 2019, accessed August 7, 2019 .
  74. ↑ manager-magazin.de
  75. ↑ Ibiza video: Strache apologizes to the companies mentioned. Retrieved September 9, 2019 (German).
  76. ↑ Strache's resignation speech in full - derStandard.at. Retrieved September 9, 2019 (Austrian German).
  77. ↑ Ibiza video: Strache apologizes to Benko and Co. Accessed on September 9, 2019 .
  78. ↑ Vice Chancellor HC Strache announced his resignation. Retrieved September 9, 2019 .
  79. ↑ Award for Tyrolean of the year.
  80. ↑ René Benko - The Man of the Year trend.at, January 9, 2012. Accessed March 31, 2017.
  81. ↑ René Benko is the “trend” man of the year . Article dated December 13, 2018, accessed December 14, 2018.
  82. ↑ Strategist of the Year , accessed December 16, 2018.
  83. ↑ Man of the Year: René Benko. The Real Estate Tycoon. on January 10, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Benko, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian real estate investor
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Innsbruck , Tyrol