In an interview with Ö1 on Saturday, he preferred to question the role of the ECB. One mistake Signa made was expanding into retail. He also advised how to exit this area and helped with raising financial resources.
But Kika/Leiner went bankrupt shortly after being sold by Signa. And Signa Sports and Karstadt in Germany are also bankrupt. The same applies in particular to Signa's largest real estate companies.
However, the properties were always properly assessed, which was also duly checked by various bodies, Gusenbauer told ORF Ö1 radio's “Mittagsjournal”. He assumes that the supervisory board was always duly informed about this issue.
Given the lack of balance sheets, the supervisory board asked the board of directors to cease this practice, as the law requires that balance sheets be entered in a timely manner in the commercial register. However, the supervisory board, chaired by Gusenbauer, could do no more than ask. Furthermore, the balance sheets were always disclosed at the general meeting, emphasized Gusenbauer.
The former politician, who resigned as head of Strabag's supervisory board because the discussion about the difficulties of the Signa companies could cause reputational damage to the construction company, stressed that he is not guilty of any criminal offenses. He paid all his income correctly in this country. “I stand by that too.”
Gusenbauer declined to comment further on the immense sums spread over his activities in the radio interview. As reported, Gusenbauer wants to remain a member of the SPÖ, which is generating certain tensions among the Social Democrats, as some party colleagues want him expelled.
Gusenbauer said Benko was as responsible for Signa's current decline as he was for its great rise. The Signa manufacturer will also inject the necessary capital to save what needs to be saved. This will be done to the same extent as other investors would do.
Corona, the war in Ukraine and inflation led to bankruptcies. Then the ECB raised interest rates by 4% within a year. “The base changes,” Gusenbauer said. There was also the “mistake” of focusing on commerce other than real estate “because you thought you could do better.” “A lot of money was invested in the commercial sector, which now lacks the necessary liquidity for the real estate sector.”
“I believe that going into commerce was a mistake,” Gusenbauer said. From what he knows, the bankruptcy of Signa Sports alone “cost 800 million in cash”.
Gusenbauer attributes a certain amount of responsibility for Signa's failures to the European Central Bank. “In my opinion, the behavior of focusing on a company in a real estate crisis does not correspond to its regulatory task and certainly did not help to overcome the crisis”, complained the former politician. From last August, after appropriate checks, the ECB urged banks to write off some of their loans to Signa.
Debate about Signa's business