Creditors of Vienna-based real estate and retail group Signa have agreed to a plan to transfer assets held by its divisions Signa Prime Selection and Signa Development Selection, which include the 146-room Park Hyatt Vienna, into receivership.
CoStar News UK reporter Bert Erik Ten Cate reports this process, which would avoid a fire sale, would then result in the sale of assets within two to five years.
The Park Hyatt Vienna, which opened in June 2014, is considered one of Vienna’s finest hotels. Hyatt Hotels Corp., which operates the hotel, also has a 50-50 joint venture with Signa in respect to the Andaz am Belvedere Vienna, a Concept by Hyatt, which opened in 2019 with 303 rooms.
Signa filed for bankruptcy in a German court in November 2023.
Among other Signa owned assets are the world-famous Chrysler Building in New York City and, since August 2022, a 50% stake in London’s Selfridges department store.
In December 2023, the Financial Times reported Signa sold its 50% stake in Berlin department store KaDeWe to a Thai group for €300 million ($326 million), likely at a discount to its valuation.
“Some creditors, including the state of Austria, preferred an insolvency procedure [for Signa] as they doubted there would be sufficient liquidity for a receivership procedure,” ten Cate reports.
Signa Prime creditors have filed €12.8 billion of claims, while Signa Development creditors have filed for €2.3 billion.
“With the receivership process, the insolvency administrator is aiming for a 30% recovery rate. This would have been significantly lower in the case of an insolvency with fire sales,” ten Cate added.