Not disposed of correctly

Explosive Signa information in auctioned dung bins

Parts of the auctioned Signa inventory still held secrets.

(Bild: aurena.at)

The auction of the inventory of the insolvent Signa Holding caused quite a stir at the beginning of the year. It was not only René Benko's luxury furniture that went under the hammer, but also everyday objects such as doormats, coat hangers and dustbins. Hidden in the latter was explosive information ...

The fact that the garbage cans really did go under the hammer with their contents is bizarre enough. However, the contents consisted not only of expected items such as bread sacks, postal waste and tangerine peels, but also of documents that should probably have been disposed of more thoroughly, as the radio station FM4 reports.

According to the report, the Signa garbage bins contained not only notifications of approval procedures and printed emails, but also a development calculation for the Lamarr project, which has now had to file for bankruptcy. The document shows that not everything went according to plan for the construction project on Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse.

The shell of the Lamarr department store in Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse; high rental income was expected, but now the company is bankrupt.

(Bild: Zwefo)

Ever higher financing costs
The report breaks down the impact of rising interest rates on the financing costs of the Lamarr project. From just under 30 million euros in 2022, these rose in the calculation to over 51 million euros at the end of September 2023. In the statement for September 2025, the financing costs are already almost 67 million euros. Rising interest rates are one of the reasons that are often seen as the cause of Signa's bankruptcy.

The insolvency of the German department store KaDeWe, which belongs to the Signa holding company, is said to have been caused by excessively high rents charged by Signa that were not in line with the market. According to the Lamarr project plan, the Lamarr department store in Vienna was also expected to generate considerable rental income. According to the plan, an annual base rent of 14.5 million euros and an additional turnover rent of 3.5 million euros were planned - which would bring Benko's empire monthly rental income of 1.5 million euros.

Future of department store uncertain
These plans came to nothing, the project company of the planned Signa department store is bankrupt. Bankruptcy proceedings were opened on Friday for the assets of "Mariahilfer Straße 10-18 Immobilien GmbH". The future of what is currently probably the most prominent building shell in Vienna is therefore completely uncertain.

It is also unclear why printed emails and sensitive documents simply ended up in the garbage bin and were not shredded properly. This may have been omitted for cost reasons: The document destruction company Reisswolf is one of Signa Holding's many creditors.