Signa-Insolvency Administrator Demands 1 Billion Euros from Gusenbauer and Co.

13 months after the bankruptcy filing at the end of November 2023, liability letters from the lawyer Norbert Abel were sent to four former board members and twelve former supervisory board members just before the turn of the year. Abel holds them responsible for at least 1 billion euros in damages.

Serious Accusations by Signa Bankruptcy Administrator Against Managers

Specifically, the bankruptcy administrator accuses the former executives Manuel Pirolt, Timo Herzberg, Tobias Sauerbier, and Claus Stadler, as well as the ex-supervisory board members - including the chairman and ex-SPÖ chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, his deputy and ÖOC president Karl Stoss, the auto dynast Robert Peugeot, the ex-head of the state-owned Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) Christoph Stadlhuber, ex-RBI boss Karl Sevelda, ex-Bank Austria director general Karl Samstag, and Wüstenrot boss and ex-FPÖ vice chancellor Susanne Ries-Hahn - of serious misconduct, breach of duty, and bankruptcy delay.

It is assumed that Signa Prime was materially insolvent "at the latest since March 31, 2022", which should have been known to both the supervisory board and the board members and should have led to the corresponding steps - filing for bankruptcy - according to a lawyer's letter available to the APA. The executives who held their position from January 1, 2022, until the opening of the bankruptcy on December 29, 2023, are addressed. The relevant damage caused by negligent and breach of duty actions amounts to - from today's perspective - around 1 billion euros according to Abel. The board thereby caused the operating loss of Signa Prime to increase at the expense of the creditors and the bankruptcy estate to be reduced. Thus, the bankruptcy quota was also reduced and a quota damage occurred.

Signa Bankruptcy Administrator Sees Duties "Negligently Breached"

Initially, there was no suitable controlling and no suitable financial planning, the bankruptcy administrator also states in a letter to Pirolt's lawyer Michael Rohregger. His client had also been a member of the debtor's board in the years before the opening of the bankruptcy and had "negligently breached his related duties during the appointment period".

The bankruptcy administrator demands the former organs of Signa Prime to acknowledge their liability "in principle". This sum is said to have been accumulated through "illegal payments, intercompany loans, and unclaimed repayments". The deadline for the receipt of the liability acknowledgment is set for January 20, 2025.

For the law firm Gusenbauer, the declaration demanded by the insolvency administrator to acknowledge liabilities under the title of damages is "without sufficient justification and presentation of any liability facts," as they announced to the media on Thursday. Therefore, this request is "insufficient to justify a culpable action by the members of the supervisory board of Signa Prime Selection AG".

Signa Insolvency Administrator: "Beer Mat" Calculations in the Hundreds of Millions

Regarding the debtor's liquidity planning, only "cursory, non-audit-proof and by no means corresponding to the demands of a large company 'beer mat' calculations are on record (in rudimentary Excel format)". The "beer mats" are characterized by the fact that they contain "arbitrary, legally baseless 'transfers' from non-group companies (especially Signa Development Selection AG) in the hundreds of millions and treat any - only supposedly free - liquidity in subsidiaries as that of the SPS". And further: "From this, any careful board member should have recognized that the debtor is operating a 'de facto cash pooling' in gross violation of capital preservation regulations."

Despite knowledge of the liquidity problems, Signa Prime Selection AG alone made payments to Signa Prime Holding GmbH, which was also in economic difficulties and materially insolvent, amounting to a good 252 million euros in the form of "mostly subordinated (!) upstream loans" in 2023. The granting of these payments to "the - not group-related - majority shareholder is a unique event in Austrian economic history," Abel noted. The board has persistently violated its duties of care under the Stock Corporation Act.

Insolvency According to Signa Insolvency Administrator Already Recognizable in the Course of 2022

The insolvency administrator also has clear words for the former supervisory board members: "In fact, the entire supervisory board has failed to properly supervise the board of the SPS (Signa Prime Selection AG, note)." In addition to a whole range of activities or omissions, the members of the supervisory board failed to work towards the filing of an insolvency application by the board, "although for careful supervisory board members it would have been recognizable in the course of 2022 at the latest that the SPS was already materially insolvent". They have "negligently violated their duties". For a board member as an "insider", it would also have been "recognizable at the latest in March 2022" that the economic situation of the entire Signa Group was deteriorating massively. This applies in particular to the lack of liquidity. As early as 2019 at the latest, board members were "aware of emerging financing difficulties from their own perception". The massively negative development should have obliged the board "at the latest in October 2022" to file for insolvency.

Due to the complexity of the structure of the insolvent Signa Prime, it cannot be ruled out that further liability claims will be asserted based on additional findings - "the investigation is still ongoing". Due to the lack of action by the individual board members or the entire board, they are jointly and severally liable for all damages that the company has incurred from the delay in insolvency. Each of the twelve supervisory board members is also jointly and severally liable for the damage incurred in the assets of Signa Prime. In addition to the liability claims now made, Abel has also already demanded back payments to the former managers and in some cases already received them.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.