Meinl House sale

Signa manager’s wife cashed in as broker

Changed hands before Christmas: the so-called Meinl-Haus at Graben 19 (right)

(Bild: Peter Tomschi)

Two weeks before Signa Prime Selection AG went bankrupt, a subsidiary sold the well-known Meinl-Haus on Graben to the Vienna Medical Association for a considerable 80 million euros. The purchase contract was signed by a top manager from the Benko empire. His wife acted as intermediary.

On December 14, 2023, a notary in Vienna's city center closed a remarkable real estate deal. Signa Prime Selection AG, already under serious threat of bankruptcy at the time, sold the well-known Meinl-Haus on Vienna's Graben to the Vienna Medical Association. Purchase price: 80 million euros. 14 days later, Signa Prime slips into insolvency.

Changed hands before Christmas: the so-called Meinl-Haus at Graben 19 (right)

(Bild: Peter Tomschi)

This transaction between the ailing Signa Prime from the Benko empire and the well-heeled welfare fund of Viennese doctors is remarkable for several reasons:

Firstly, the purchase price is significantly higher than the value that Signa Prime had on its books at around the end of December 2020: at that time, the Am Graben 19 property was valued at just over €50 million.

On the other hand, there was an interesting intermediary in this 80 million euro deal. Eva Jost, who runs a sole proprietorship as a real estate agent at Walfischgasse 5 in Vienna.

Managing director and prime authorized signatory
According to "Krone" research, Eva Jost is the wife of Bernhard Jost, one of the top managers from the financial juggler's empire. Bernhard Jost not only holds dozens of management positions in René Benko's opaque web of companies, he has also been an authorized signatory of the important Signa Prime Selection AG since 2015. And: Bernhard Jost has been managing "Graben 19 Immobilien GmbH", which is part of the Signa Prime universe, since 2016. As managing director of this company, he signed the purchase agreement with the representatives of the Vienna Medical Association together with Signa CFO and Prime CEO Manuel Pirolt on December 14, 2023. And his wife cashed in as estate agent.

Excerpt from the purchase agreement of an 80-million-euro deal: Managing Director Jost signs for the Signa Group.

(Bild: zVg)

Why does a company specializing in luxury real estate like Signa Prime Selection AG need outside help with the distress sale of one of the most famous buildings in the city centre? Why, of all people, did the wife of a top manager of the Signa Group have to be commissioned to do this?

"Standard market amount"
In an 80 million euro deal, an agent could legally collect up to three percent of the purchase price. That would be 2.4 million euros. Eva Jost left all questions about this unanswered for weeks, breaking off a phone call after a few seconds. The Signa Group also did not respond to a request for comment on the commission amount and the circumstances. The Vienna Medical Association stated that Ms. Jost had a contractual agreement with the seller, i.e. the Signa Group: "The brokerage fee was agreed at a standard market level." However, it was "significantly below" the legally permissible maximum amount of three percent.

According to "Krone" research, the agency fee is said to have amounted to around one million euros. The Signa Group and the Vienna Medical Association were to each pay half.

Curious, as the big city of Vienna is so often accused of being just a village: according to the company register, the sole proprietorship of estate agent Eva Jost is located in the very building in which the new Signa Prime board member Erhard Grossnigg, 77, and long-time Benko partner Hans Peter Haselsteiner, 80, have offices. Admittedly at a different door number.