Mubadala wins €700m arbitration on Signa losses

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala fund has been awarded more than €700 million ($825 million) in arbitration linked to the collapse of Austria’s Signa property empire, creditor protection group Creditreform said on Tuesday.

Mubadala is among multiple international investors and creditors seeking to recover losses from one of Europe’s biggest real estate failures.

Signa, founded by real estate investor Rene Benko, once owned landmark buildings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It fell into insolvency in late 2023 after rising interest rates and borrowing costs pushed the group into financial distress.

Creditreform, which represents Signa creditors’ interests, said the arbitration, overseen by the International Chamber of Commerce, targeted Benko himself, the core entities of Signa Group and two family trusts.

The total disputed sum in the case was about €900 million.

The International Chamber of Commerce did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Mubadala declined to comment.

It has yet to be determined where the money awarded to Mubadala will come from, though some observers have pointed to the Laura Private Foundation owned and run by the Benko family.

Karl-Heinz Goetze, of the KSV 1870 creditors’ association, suggested the foundation is the only Benko entity with sufficient assets remaining.

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Signa’s two main property operations, Signa Prime Selection and Signa Development Selection, which held the group’s most valuable city assets and development projects, were spared payment and cost obligations in the case, their insolvency administrators said.

Benko’s lawyer, Norbert Wess, told Reuters that the arbitration claim against Benko himself had been dismissed. Wess did not respond immediately to a further request for comment on the Laura Private Foundation.

Benko, once one of Europe’s most ambitious real estate developers, has been in custody for about a year. He has been convicted twice for fraud related to insolvency cases. He is appealing against both convictions.

The collapse of his group left investors, including major German and Swiss companies, facing hundreds of millions of euros in losses.