300-Million Exit

How René Benko Lied to His Main Bank, Raiffeisen

Signa founder René Benko and former Raiffeisen Lower Austria-Vienna CEO Michael Höllerer (right)(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Christof Birbaumer, Peter Tomschi, Karl Schöndorfer)

Half a year before the billion-euro bankruptcy at the end of 2023, a crisis meeting was held at Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich Wien: During the meeting, René Benko and his managers did not reveal the whole truth to their long-standing bank. The “Krone” knows the facts and the background.

In the first half of 2023, René Benko literally had his hands full. On the one hand, he had to pull off distress sales within the Signa Group, such as those of Kika and Leiner. On the other hand, as the ruler of his network of foundations, the Signa founder wanted to keep up the appearance of being one of Austria’s richest men: he made some rather curious purchasing decisions, such as in the case of a horse worth millions.