VIENNA (Reuters) – Insolvent Austrian real estate company Signa Prime Selection, part of the troubled Signa empire, has sold the luxury Hotel Bauer on Venice’s Grand Canal as part of a deal with German industrial group Schoeller.
Sigma Prime communicated this.
Signa, a real estate group founded by Rene Benko, was the biggest victim of the European real estate crisis, with creditors making claims worth billions of euros.
The group’s holding company, at the center of a network of hundreds of businesses, has declared bankruptcy, along with two of the company’s most important subsidiaries, Prime and Signa Development.
“The boards of directors of Signa Prime and the Schoeller Group signed the contracts after a successful negotiation between Vienna, Munich and Bolzano”, reads a statement from Signa Prime, referring to their offices and the Trentino city -Alto Adige where two other projects included in the agreement are located.
Signa Prime did not specify the amount paid by the Schoeller Group for the three properties. The deal is subject to banking and antitrust approval and is expected to close in “a limited number of months,” the company added.
Signa Prime includes some of Signa’s most notable properties. Last month it was in talks with Schoeller about the sale of some assets, including the Park Hyatt hotel and the so-called “Golden Quarter” in central Vienna, although a source said the negotiations were prolonged.
The Schoeller Group is involved in sectors ranging from packaging to real estate and includes a family office that is “now held by Martin and Christoph Schoeller and their families now in their seventh generation,” it says on its website.
Signa Prime has owned Hotel Bauer since 2020. It is currently undergoing renovations and is expected to reopen next year under the management of Hong Kong’s Rosewood Hotel Group.
(Translated by Enrico Sciacovelli, editing by Claudia Cristoferi)
