How it came about

Benko & Signa: the chronology of a downfall

The chronology of the downfall of a once dazzling entrepreneur.(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Starpix/Alexander Tuma, stock.adobe.com)

In December 2022, Benko's Signa empire began to crumble - and turned into an insolvency domino from the end of November last year. The collapse of the empire is responsible for the biggest bankruptcy of the Second Republic. How did it get this far? The in-depth chronology in our digital special.

Real estate in prime locations and investments in large retail chains such as Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof: Signa Holding, the heart of René Benko's corporate network, combined company shares worth several billion euros. Over a thousand companies are presumably under the management of Signa Holding - exact figures are unknown, experts can only estimate. With Signa Holding, Signa Prime Selection and Signa Development Selection, the three core companies of the conglomerate have gone bankrupt worth billions. The non-transparent interdependencies ultimately led to the fall of the Signa empire.