Signa card house
Investor Kühne: “Benko was a pipe-dream”
Signa investor Klaus-Michael Kühne settled accounts with Tyrolean financial juggler René Benko at an awards ceremony in Hamburg in mid-September. And with very harsh words.
Kühne is considered the richest German with a reported private fortune of 40 billion euros. And a man of clear words. The entrepreneur (Kühne + Nagel), who owns stakes in Lufthansa and Hapag Lloyd through his holding company, lived up to this reputation at an evening event in Hamburg, where he was honored for his life's work.
"That was a big failure"
When Kühne was asked about his investment in the financially ailing Signa and the not even half-finished Hamburg concrete skeleton called the Elbtower, he said dryly: "There's still a lot to be said about the Elbtower. Mr. Benko is history. It was a big failure. But you can't succeed at everything. Then there is also the occasional failure."
The 87-year-old Kühne from Hamburg had invested hundreds of millions in the Signa construct. Construction work on the Elbe Tower, planned by star architect David Chipperfield, has been at a standstill for around a year.
The skyscraper, which at 245 meters high was to become the new landmark of the Hanseatic city, has only reached 100 meters so far.
Video: Kühne settles accounts with Benko
Critical questions for Benko as early as 2022
Kühne had already started asking Benko critical questions about his opaque company conglomerate in 2022. The two men broke up on December 1, 2022, when the Hamburg native unceremoniously dumped the Tyrolean over lunch and informed him in writing just a few minutes later that he would initiate the exit of his holding company from Signa.
Just under a year later, Signa's bankruptcy dominoes began to play out - culminating in Austria's biggest bankruptcy of the post-war period.
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