Signa Holding, the embattled co-owner of the Chrysler Building, was ordered by an Austrian court to sell its stake in the iconic New York City skyscraper.
A month after the company declared insolvency, Signa’s administrator said Tuesday that selling its share in the Chrysler Building — as well as shedding the company private jet, among other court-ordered efforts — will help salvage the Rene Benko-founded property and retail giant, according to The Wall Street Journal.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Signa’s stake in the 77-story building is worth four years after it joined forces with New York real estate magnate Aby Rosen’s firm RFR Holding to collectively buy it for about $150 million.
Despite its iconic status, the Chrysler Building lately has been struggling to get occupancy above 80%.
Last month, sources told The Post that Rosen’s RFR and Signa were finally making progress on stalled talks to restructure their long-term ground lease with Cooper Union, which owns the land under the landmark building.
The pricey rent was cited as the reason why the companies were able to nab such a low purchase price for the tower.
The ground lease went up from just $7.75 million in 2018 to $31.5 million this year, and is slated to rise to $41 million in 2028.
Representatives for Signa did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
As part of Signa’s restructuring efforts, the privately owned Austrian real-estate company also will have to terminate its rental agreements at its headquarters in the Viennese city palaces Harrach and Ferstl, according to The Journal.
The number of Signa’s payroll was slashed from 42 to just eight — a staggering 81% cut, the outlet reported.
“A liquidation plan has been initiated for the accelerated sale of investments and assets,” the administrator, Christof Stapf, said in statement.
Meanwhile, Signa had been making steady progress on the planned 64-story Elbtower skyscraper in Hamburg, Germany — which was slated for a 2026 opening up until Signa stopped paying the builder, who then halted work.
Construction has also stopped at five other Signa sites in Germany as the firm struggles to pay back its debts
Signa has borrowed heavily from banks, including Switzerland’s Julius Baer, which disclosed that it had an exposure of more than $684 million as of last month.
The financial links are especially strong in Austria, where Signa was founded and is headquartered.
Raiffeisen Landesbank Niederoesterreich-Wien, Raiffeisen Landesbank Oberoesterreich and Erste Group are also among the banks with exposures to Signa.
Other lenders include Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International.
Earlier this month, one of its executives, Hannes Moesenbacher, identified a more than $828 million exposure to a client, referring to Benko’s group, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
BayernLB and Helaba, the regional state-backed banks for two of Germany’s most affluent states, Bavaria and Hesse, have each lent the group several hundreds of millions of euros, said people with knowledge of the matter.
With Post wires.
Credit: Source link
